AirPods battery indicator randomly show per-airpod or as a pair?

AirPods 2 & iPhone 12 iOS 18.6.2.

Everything is working in terms of connectivity & the battery indicator BUT sometimes the widget shows the individual battery values per-airpod (case ... left ... right) and sometimes just the pair (case ... pair of AirPods). This is also the case in Bluetooth -> airpods -> (i) information.

How is this ever useful?? PLEASE could Apple be consistent and always show all values individually; I was having an issue with one AirPod losing its charge and I wanted to check on the battery status of the left & right - sometimes I could & sometimes not!

Maybe it's just me - is there a way to force the battery indicator to always read (case ... left ... right) & I've not found it ?