Help launching HL2 VR?

I used to have a work around to launch the HL2 VR mod on my Quest 3. Basically, I had to exit the main Steam desktop app, then launch Steam VR separately, and launch the HL2 VR mod from there. This worked. But recently, something changed, and now the Steam desktop app starts again as soon as I launch HL2 VR, which is what prevents the mod from starting in the first place.

I am able to start HL2 VR successfully in VR by launching it directly from it's exe or bat file, but the problem is that it does not seem to load with Quest controller support in this case.

Anyone have any other ideas?