The script relies on sparse-checkout, which is an experimental command and has had some changes in the recent versions. For example on git v2.45.2, the '-q' flag is not recognized and cone is the default mode for sparse-checkout. I got it to work by removing '-q' and running:

command = ["git", "-C", repo_dir, "sparse-checkout", "init", "--no-cone"]
subprocess.run(command)

However that may not be compatible with older versions.