Battery hit over time / independent of iPhone or not?

Quick question for people.

I've had an AW since 2015 (was it?) and in 2023 I got my first Ultra (2). Since the first watch I got with cellular, I've always really enjoyed being able to go for a run without my phone, but when I got the U2 I spoke to an Apple genius that doing things like going for a run, whilst running particularly third party apps like Audible, would increase the battery demand (naturally) and therefore increase the overall degradation of battery health / capacity over time. So, this is what I tried to do.

I had that U2 for two years, and I tried as much as possible to avoid using the watch solo when going for a run. I think when I sold it on, it was down to 92% capacity.

My question to people is, especially those of you who have a similar use case, is it worth trying to protect it like this (I do have AC+) or should I stop doing it with the new one and just use it how it's meant to be?