New apartment that 'self locks' (groan) ... has two buttons on side of lock --- way to disable self-lock feature?

Hey there -- I'm not a lock expert obviously but you guys are.

I'm in a new studio apartment with a self-locking door. Aka whenever the door closes, it locks (from the outside, the inside can always be turned). Maybe this is a 'life saver' mandated door or something.

Personally I would much rather have a lock that I lock closed every time I leave. Reason? Simple. I'll never lock myself out, period.

Anyway, I did notice two 'buttons' on the side of the lock. From some basic testing, it appears these buttons --- temporarily --- change the lock from self-lock/ no self-lock.

Aka if I depress the bottom button, the door will stay unlocked when closed from the outside. That's perfect!

Except ... whenever I lock the door, it becomes self-locking again. So it's really just for fringe cases like you need to run out down the hall, maybe once, to take out the trash our something. But the door is mostly self-lock again and probability of locking yourself out within a year: just about 100%.

Is there something I'm missing with this lock where I can just disable the silly self-locking feature? There is a deadbolt but only from the inside, so using that instead of the doorknob lock is out.