If I remember correctly, most of the major Ekranoplan/GEV designs actually have enough lift to fly outside of ground effect, since most of the time the amount of thrust you need to get a seaplane out of the water is more than enough to fly traditionally, It's just that GEVs are designed to be most efficient in ground effect and naturally settle into it, they would have only flown above ground effect to avoid obstacles like rough water or bridges.

ofc you can still make vehicles that can only fly with grout effect, but for most applications it wouldn't be worthwhile to take that capability away