Airpods and their connection to multiple devices

This is driving me NUTS! I have Airpods which I use almost exclusively with my phone. But I do *sometimes* use them on the Macbook. But very rarely. The problem is that with my Apple ID signed into both devices, there appears to be no way to reliably get the Airpods to ONLY connect to the phone and never to the Mac. So randomly I will get a phone call, or squeeze the Airpod to start music playing or do dictation, and I will find the Airpods are connected to the Mac and not the iphone. I know there is a *setting* that says "Connect to this Mac only when last connected to this Mac" but that setting doesn't appear to do anything, or at least, isn't a firm way to prevent the Airpods from EVER connecting to the Mac on their own.

What's the deal? I would be happy to simply never connect them to the computer, but once connected to the iPhone, the Mac "knows" about them. And if I "forget" them on the Mac, they are forgotten from the phone. What a stupid setting! Anyone have a suggestion?