Epix Pro 42mm, AOD off and buttons behaviour

Hi,

My new Epix Pro 42mm is behaving weirdly and I cannot believe it’s by design. With every other Garmin with AMOLED I tried when AOD is off and you press a button like Up/Down the watch turns the display on and then goes up/down. With the Epix Pro ALL  5 buttons when pressed just turn the display on so you are forced to press the same button a second time to actually work.

Is this a bug? For instance when I’m running it means I have to rise my arm, hope the gesture works (not always does) and then press up/down all while I have both arms raised… and running… Same for starting/stopping an activity. It only works at first press if the display is already on…  Garmin what are you doing??? It makes no sense whatsoever! The whole point of having buttons is not having to look at the watch to turn a function straight on! Face palm tone1

Is there an option to disable this that I’m missing? I don’t want to activate AOD, battery life on my 42mm would be atrocious. Thanks