Why do I get E492 running a plugin command through a keymap after lazy loading

Question

I've been using neovim for quite a while, but I'm looking to switch to a Lua config. I'm looking to use lazy.nvim, but I can't figure out why my plugin commands only get initialized when I configure keymaps in init and do not lazy load the plugin. I get this error when I try to close a window through the keymap.

E492: Not an editor command: LWCLose

Oddly, when I manually type :LWClose, it works.

I have simplified the init.lua so it will be easier to help me.

vim.g.mapleader = " "
vim.g.maplocalleader = ","

local lazypath = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/lazy/lazy.nvim"
if not vim.loop.fs_stat(lazypath) then
  vim.fn.system({
    "git",
    "clone",
    "--filter=blob:none",
    "https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim.git",
    "--branch=stable", -- latest stable release
    lazypath,
  })
end
vim.opt.rtp:prepend(lazypath)

require("lazy").setup({
  {
    "cskeeters/vim-leave-window",
    --lazy=false,
    dependencies = {
      "moll/vim-bbye"
    },

    -- This works when lazy=false
    -- init = function()
    --     vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>w',  ':LWClose<cr>',  { noremap=true, silent=true, desc="Closes a buffer" })
    --     vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>gw', ':LWClose!<cr>', { noremap=true, silent=true, desc="Closes a buffer (Without Saving!)" })
    -- end

    -- When keys are configured this way, I get "E492: Not an editor command: LWCLose" when I type <leader>w
    keys = {
      { "<leader>w",  "<cmd>LWCLose<cr>",  noremap=true, silent=true, desc = "Closes a buffer" },
      { "<leader>gw", "<cmd>LWCLose!<cr>", noremap=true, silent=true, desc = "Closes a buffer (Without Saving!)" },
    }
  }
})

vim.keymap.set('n', '<Leader>l', ':Lazy<cr>', { desc="Opens the Lazy Package Manager UI" })

Here is a link to my plugin. This plugin works fine in vim/neovim, just not with this particular configuration of lazy.nvim where the plugin is lazy loaded with the mappings performed via keys.

https://github.com/cskeeters/vim-leave-window/blob/master/plugin/leave-window.vim#L20

I'm using NVIM v0.9.4 installed by brew on macOS Sonoma 14.1 (23B74).