For me by default the MacBook would bridge the phone connection through bluetooth. And I think there's still some custom stuff happening when choosing the phone

For me by default the MacBook would bridge the phone connection through bluetooth. And I think there's still some custom stuff happening when choosing the phone in the wi-fi dropdown when the mac identifies that the phone is on the same account and connects without password prompt. In the iPhone days I "force" connected to the phone hotspot through the standard password required procedure and it did better than the other more convenient options.