VPN split tunneling with Apex?

I'm using ProtonVPN (paid) for some other apps on my Win11 PC and trying to exclude Apex from using the VPN connection. The split tunneling is enabled in Proton app and confirmed working in several other apps. I've added the EA app, EA background service, r5apex.exe, r5apex_d12.exe and starprtectedgame.exe to the excluded apps list in my VPN, but when I launch Apex it still seemingly goes through VPN as evidenced by my ping in-game almost doubling every time as opposed to when I play with the VPN app completely off. Any idea how to fix? Thanks.