Question XR Valve OpenVR plugin always starting SteamVR at application launch despite configured otherwise

XR Valve OpenVR plugin always starting SteamVR at application launch despite configured otherwise:

in Project Settings, XR is configured to NOT get initialised at launch.

Nevertheless XR Valve OpenVR plugin does always start SteamVR at application launch.

Is there a way around this?

The application is not running in VR mode on launch but can get switched during runtime to VR mode which works. But I like SteamVR (and associated apps) to not get run when the application launches (they may only start when the application switches to VR).