iOS doesn't show my Sandisk Extreme 1TB

I really tried researching this, but I'm not finding any answers except for iPadOS.

Issue: I have a 1TB Extreme SSD, works fine on Mac OS, but I can't see it on iOS formatted as APFS or Mac Journaled. Only exFat.

Why: I was reading about exFAT that even if it can support large file transfers, it seems to be the slower file format, and can also fail sometimes too. I only have Mac's in my house, so I'm not worried about cross platform compatibility. I just wanted to use a more reliable (and maybe potentially faster) file system.

Steps:

• I have the official Lightning USB-A OTG adapter with power plugged in (tried different power adapters as well to ensure proper power is supplied)
• I can see other USB 32GB and 256GB flash drives in APFS
• I've formatted the 1TB drive in APFS (non-encrypted), Mac OS Journaled (non-encrypted), Fat32, exFAT. The only format it recognized is exFAT on this drive.
• I've rebooted the iPhone 12 Pro Max
• I've tried different USB cables (even different lengths, as I was getting paranoid thinking it may need more power for longer cables 😆)
• I left the drive connected for at least 30 minutes, hoping it was just trying to initialize the device (or whatever).

Please advise. Thank you :)