Phone number format in Contacts in 10.15

After spendingg far too long looking for a resolution and trying far too many things that did not work, I am posting a new question as a last hope.

In past incarnations Contacts allowed a format to be set (similar to defining number formats in 'Numbers' or that other spreadsheet) for phone numbers and also allowed for numbers to be entered without country or regional (area) code prefixes. In those cases Contacts correctly interpreted the numbers as being the final digits of a 'complete' number.

I need to know how to get Contacts to either treat phone numbers as above or else simply accept the format as it is entered.

A minor consolation to my continued disappointment would be if there were at least some indication that this issue is on a "Fix List" somewhere at Apple.