Jeff - I can't make it happen your way on my iPhone 13 Pro running iOS 18.3.2.
If I'm in any app, even a native one like Settings, the first down-left swipe from the upper-right corner puts me in the what looks like the sign-in screen (where you arrive after pushing the right -- screen on or off -- button) except that I'm already signed in. It takes me a second down-left swipe to get to my modified version of the Control Panel. It also takes me two upward swipes to get back to the app.
I used to be able to simply swipe down-left from the little airplane/battery icons in the upper right of any screen and get directly to the Control Panel.
What are we doing differently? -- JCW2