How to prevent handoff to homepods

There used to be an option on all the Apple operating systems to prevent handoff happening to HomePods. I can no longer find this option in settings on any of the Apple operating systems,. Where can I find it?

The problem I am trying to solve is simply that I am using my Apple device (iPad, MacBook, or iPhone) to play music to 2 different AirPlay destinations, one of which is a HomePod. When using the Music app, I lose control of what is playing! I cannot pause, change, repeat or do anything that I would normally do with the music app. My watch is even telling me that my phone is not playing music!

The only way to stop the music seems to be through the abandonware which is the home app which does not have any of the facilities of the music app… That is once you found beeping HomePod within the device list.

I cannot believe that a setting would be removed by Apple without testing, but then they also bought us a setting app that has no effective facility.

btw. As my original host implied this occurs on all HomePods within the household, and is a problem with all devices trying to use said HomePods. I clarify this because this forum system seems to want me to choose a particular device and operating system, et cetera.