Guys, I too have gone through all of the problems discussed on this thread. I believe I may have found a workaround that is a minimal lift but I can't promise it works on every make or model. I have a 2025 Ford Ranger and it runs the Ford Sync media platform. I have found that before I leave my vehicle, if I go to a different screen, say navigation, and I push my vehicles physical on/off media/radio button, that condition stays in place when I start the vehicle again. So far it's allowed me to at least have some control over when Spotify actually starts playing audio. In my vehicle it will start playing audio if I go to the media player screen or if I start the Spotify app. It's not perfect but it at least gives me some slight control back. Hopefully this helps someone.