iOS 16: Cyrillic script's Bulgarian stylistic variation is not loaded when region is correctly selected as Bulgaria

Hey guys,

With the introduction of iOS 16, one of the new features is a Bulgarian translation/localization of the system. Since I'm located there, up until know I've been using Bulgarian as my preferred language in the language list (Settings > General > Language & Region > Preferred Languages), with English as a second choice.

That would mean that iOS's menus and most native apps by Apple stayed in English (as a Bulgarian localization was not available prior to version 16), but all the other apps that supported Bulgarian and more importantly, Safari, would follow the preferred language list's order and select the Bulgarian version of an app or website first, if available.

Also, Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic script (it was actually created there), but has its own unique stylistic variation, so certain letters look different than those used in the Russian Cyrillic, for example. This is acknowledged and reflected in Apple's default font, San Francisco, and has been available for a few years now.

If Bulgarian is selected as a first choice in the Preferred Languages, the Bulgarian stylistic variation is correctly loaded and displayed accordingly. And here (finally :) comes my problem. I don't want my iPhone menus in Bulgarian, I would like to keep them in English. This may sound counterintuitive for some, but I've been using iPhone and Mac for nearly 14 years and up until now, Bulgarian localization has never been an option, so it was English all along.

I find Bulgarian translation of certain elements confusing and would very much like to stay in English. Unfortunately, if I do that, there is no way to tell third-party apps to load in Bulgarian first. Also, all Cyrillic text reverts to the default Unicode characters (more Russian-like) and not the Bulgarian stylistic set, despite the fact that I've selected "Bulgaria" as my region.

I would very much like to learn how to keep English as the default menu language, but pick another language as the leading "localization" language for apps and websites. Just like it was in iOS 15 and past versions. This can be done individually for Safari, for example (it has its own language list), but also switches the app language of menus in general and leads to an absurd situation where the keyboard uses the default Unicode Cyrillic characters, but the text input is in fact the Bulgarian stylistic set (see screenshot). My Cyrillic keyboard is correctly selected as "Bulgarian (QWERTY)" and not Russian or something else.

Thank you!