Stop After Effects from quiting after closing the project window

On MacOS programs stay open after you close the document or project window, but for some strange reason, AE quits and you have to open it again everytime.... or at least add a preference to change this behavior.

OS and version:

Every version of AE does this on every MacOS i've ever used...

Steps:

clic the red icon to close the project window... app quits

Expected results:

app stays open, like every single other app in my computer

Actual result:

After Effects quits...

This is valuable because I can close my project windows and move to other programs without AE quitting, so it's already open when I have to work on another project...