Option for Busy/Free on Calendar

I use the Calendar on my iPhone (iOS 17.6.1, but I am now updating to iOS 18 and hoping maybe this issue is resolved via this update). Anyway, my Calendar no longer has the option allowing me to select either "busy" or "free" when I enter a new Calendar entry; a feature that used to be automatically available when I made new calendar entries until very recently. I have this Calendar connected to another calendar (in College Planner Pro) and my clients now see ALL of my iPhone calendar entries as Busy/unavailable (in reality, some of my iPhone calendar entries are actually tasks that I would have selected "Free" as they should not make me unavailable to clients). Example: I enter errands or family birthdays on my calendar and I used to select "free" so that these entries did not prevent clients from booking time on my calendar but now ALL iPhone calendar entries show on my linked calendar as unavailable (this used to only happen when I selected show as "Busy" on my iPhone calendar). Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Thanks!