Option to turn off loading the New Project template when starting After Effects

Though I love the idea of having a template load up when I create a new project (Preferences > New Project), its current implementation makes it kind of unusable. 

The issue is that whenever I load up AE, it also loads up the New Project template and 99% of the time, I don't want to start a new project, I want to pick up where I left off on my current working project. All it's doing is slowing down AE's load time and forcing me to close out a project I never wanted in the first place.

If I turn on the Home Screen option (Preferences > Startup Options > Enable Home Screen), that overrides the New Project setting but I don't want that either as it's just another screen that I never wanted in the first place to close out of. So the current workaround is to just turn it off altogether as it's that annoying. So I've basically been annoyed out of using a function that would otherwise be quite useful.

The ideal functionality would be to load the New Project template only when I explicitly tell AE to do so i.e. File > New > New Project. Do not assume I want a new project just because I started AE. 

I feel like this was an oversight on Adobe's part and should be a fairly simple fix or if this is intended behavior then at least add a tick box as I've suggested in the attachment to at least give us the option to turn off this behaviour.