Update: How I fixed iPhone Calendar alerts disappearing when switching Focus

Quick update on the issue I posted a couple weeks ago: my iPhone Calendar alerts would randomly stop showing after I switched between Work Focus and Personal Focus during the day (WFH life). It was not a battery issue, not a beta problem, and the events were still in the calendar. I just was not getting the banner or sound, and sometimes the alert only showed up later as a silent notification.

What actually fixed it for me was not toggling Calendar notifications off and on. The things that finally made alerts consistent were:

1. Settings > Focus: My Work Focus had 'Time Sensitive Notifications' turned off. I had assumed Calendar would still break through since its alerts feel system level, but it did not.

2. In each Focus I had Calendar listed as an Allowed App, but I did not realize I had 'Hide Notification Badges' and 'Silence Notifications' set differently across Focus modes. I made those match across all my Focus modes.

3. Settings > Notifications > Calendar: I turned on Time Sensitive Alerts and set Alerts to Lock Screen + Notification Center + Banners (Persistent). The persistent banners made a big difference because temporary banners were easy to miss when I was in another app.

Since making those changes I've had a full week of alerts firing normally even when I switch Focus modes a lot, like when I'm planning a Disneyland day and switch into a more locked down Focus.

Question for others: do you treat Calendar as time sensitive, or do you keep it normal and rely on widgets? Curious what setup people find most reliable when they live in Focus modes all day.