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RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.software$
RewriteRule ^downloads$ https://example.software\?mode\=downloads&%{QUERY_STRING} [R=302,L]
This is an external redirect. The URL is changed to /?mode=downloads&name=bing - which is what the user will see. The idea of implementing a "friendly" URL like /downloads/bing is so this is the only URL ...
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RewriteRule ^a\/images/$ images/$1 [L]
There is no capturing group in the RewriteRule pattern, so the $1 backreference is always empty and will only rewrite the request from /a/images/ to /images/ (note the trailing slash).
To rewrite a request to any path depth then you simply need to establish that there is something (even just 1 character) in the URL-...
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