Automatically connect MacBook to iPhone hotspot broken

I'm looking for a way to have my macbook pro "automatically connect" to my ipad or iphone hotspot whenever I open the lid. Just like it automatically connects to my home wifi when available! Lots of google searches asking for the same thing and all I've been able to find is the steps required to connect to a hotspot once your computer is up and running. But surely there has to be a way for your apple device to automatically find and connect to your active apple hotspots without re-connecting every single time?

The question has been asked here before, but the answer given does not work. I'll give a summary of the answers common:

• Mac: MacOS Sonoma 14.5
• iPhone: iOS 17.5
• iPhone bluetooth & wifi on
• Mac bluetooth & wifi on
• iPhone logged into same Apple ID as Mac
• On the iPhone, check "Allow others to join"
• On the iPhone, uncheck "Maximize compatibility"
• On the Mac, check "Auto-Join"
• On the Mac, click "Network Settings..." in that same menu and then check "Automatically join this network"
• In the Wi-Fi settings, at the bottom, click "Advanced..." and find your hotspot and move its priority up: this doesn't work because iPhone hotspots are not listed here, only normal Wi-Fi networks are

Following all these steps, and auto-connecting does not work. The Mac will not automatically connect to the iPhone hotspot.

Hope this gets fixed quickly because frankly I weirdly spend a lot of time in the Mac network settings. Also because the iPhone hotspot disconnects regularly, but we'll leave that to another issue – though automatically reconnecting would at least make that less disruptive too.