I wish there was an option in OpenVPN to not use connection on SSID/network xyz. I have static IP at home and use dyndns for DNS resolution with service specific subdomains. Then, using forwarder at home I create split DNS to point to local device for public domain. It currently doesn't work as I combined domain for VPN and another service out of laziness after moving VPN to physical box.

All that said, I don't need to VPN while at home to home network and prefer a little more granularity instead wifi or cell only. I believe this could be where battery drain would come from, at least in my case as the client constantly retries at home though it will never resolve the proper host internally cause I am lazy admin.

You’re right, that’s because (I think) this is an “on-demand” VPN, which basically only connects as needed, and allows for switching between Wi-Fi and cellular. It also shouldn’t drain more battery, since it’s not keeping the connection alive when the device is asleep.

'the 1.1.1.1 app does not make anything more spotty or unreliable; it’s just DNS. Openvpn yes, but this app clearly not.'

Not entirely true, in my experience it really fucks with your ability to connect to public hotspots (ex. airports, airplanes, trains, coffee shops) which took me a while to realize

Well this is normal if those network rely on their special DNS servers to connect you.

It's not cloudflare you should blame here, but those providers

Is blame really relevant?

I think it is, as they don't follow any standard if they return wrong DNS answers, and they might mess with user's systems

Because it obscures the source address for DNS queries, it will mess with split-horizon DNS and other systems that give different answers in different places. You might be surprised how many that is.