You are right. There used to be some setting… I had it hooked in via Nova Launcher and some accessibility setting, where with one gesture I could “turn it off” without requiring password, and with a power button press I could fully lock. But Android has (fairly recently) removed that option. (Also, fwiw, I’m no longer on Nova, but that’s beside the point!) Thanks for checking that for me.
oof, me too. :/