> And after a while, Windows always finds a way to force the default
> settings on me.

For modern Windows 10 (22H2 or better) and more so for Windows 11 and for consumer machines (not Company), updates and Defender will always restart running at some point.  

What you see is completely normal and cannot be permanently changed on a consumer computer. 

You can whitelist any Apps that you need to run in the normal course of your activities.

Potential duplicate article about this are several years old.