How do I force iPhone to ALWAYS be the source of music played on a HomePod and NEVER stream directly from a HomePod?

What do I mean? I have downloaded my entire music library to my all my Apple devices. I NEVER want to stream music. NEVER!

Now, I frequently want to play my downloaded music on one of our several HomePods. When I do so I always want the iPhone to be the source of the music, not the HomePod. However, every time I tap the AirPlay icon and select one of our HomePods, the source changes to that HomePod. Every.....single....time! This wouldn't matter that much, except when music is played this way the sound isn't muted when a phone call comes in. In fact, when the call is answered not only does the music keep blaring along at the same level, the screen needed to control the **** HomePod is no longer showing, making nearly impossible to mute or pause the song before the call goes to voice mail.

OK, this may be hard to visualize as I've described it so far. So, here a step by step description first of what I don't want to happen but happens all the time followed by what I do want to happen when I play music downloaded to my devices on one of our HomePods:

What I DON'T want:

1. 1. I open the music app on the iPhone (running iOS 17).
   2. Choose a song/album from the library (all of which is downloaded to the phone BTW. The music is NOT streamed).
   3. Press play
   4. the song plays from the iPhone
   5. tap AirPlay
   6. Select a HomePod (we have 8 scattered throughout the house)
   7. The source of the music switches to the HomePod I've chose, exactly what I DON'T want, EVER.
   8. The AirPlay indicator (See first photo) now says the name of the HomePod (e.g. "Kitchen", or "Workshop")

What I DO want to happen:

1. 1. Open the music app on the iPhone (running iOS 17).
   2. Choose a song/album from the library (all of which is downloaded to the phone BTW. The music is NOT streamed).
   3. Press play
   4. the song plays from the iPhone
   5. tap AirPlay
   6. Select a HomePod (we have 8 scattered throughout the house)
   7. The source of the music STAYS on iPhone but plays on the HomePod I've chose
   8. The AirPlay indicator "iPhone --> Kitchen" (see second photo)

The ONLY way I've been able to force iPhone, HomePods, and AirPlay to function they way I want is to:

1. 1. Open the music app on the iPhone (running iOS 17).
   2. Choose a song/album from the library (all of which is downloaded to the phone BTW. The music is NOT streamed).
   3. Press play
   4. the song plays from the iPhone
   5. tap AirPlay
   6. Select my MacBook Pro first
   7. wait for music to start playing
   8. Tap AirPlay again
   9. Tap the HomePod I want music to play out of
   10. Tap AirPlay again
   11. Tap the left indicator next to the combined MacBook Pro and HomePod to expand the group
   12. De-select the MacBook Pro
   13. FINALLY, the AirPlay indicator says "iPhone --> Kitchen"

I'm soooooo frustrated by my inability to sort this out. I've tried disabling "Transfer to HomePod" in the AirPlay settings. Nope.

Please, someone, anyone, help me solve this profoundly annoying AirPlay behavior! How can the iPhone / HomePod be set up to always playback music with the iPhone as the source (AirPlay displays shows iPhone -> HomePod).