I'm in the same camp, thinking I probably have aphantasia. Before I read about it I didn't call it anything because I had no concept that there was anything lacking in my experience. I thought it was just how everyone's mind worked. I had no idea that people could actually see things that they visualized. I had always thought that the term "visualize" was just an exaggerated metaphor for imagining. For example I can imagine a little island in a field of blue ocean with a palm tree growing out of it just fine, I can conceptually place the objects around in this imaginary scene and have a sense for where the things are in relation to one another and what shapes and colors they are, but I can't for the life of me "see" a single thing no matter how much I focus on it. It might sound contradictory but I don't know how else to describe it.

I have only experienced something that sounds like how normal folks see in their minds eye once, on the cusp of falling asleep, hypnagogic hallucinations began but I was somewhat in control of what I was seeing, I could change the image at will to whatever I imagined. It lasted but a couple of minutes before I fell asleep. Someone that has a normal mind's eye - and has also experienced the pre-sleep hallucinations - would have to tell me if my experience was similar to a normal imagination though. It could be that my hypnagogic episode was far more vivid than a typical person's visual imagination during normal waking hours though, too, who knows? I did feel very jealous though after that episode thinking that most people probably have such an ability to visualize like that while awake.