battery optimization not working in Sequoia

While I understand you are using a Mac, the Optimize Battery feature works very similar to that on the iPhone and may help explain what you are experiencing.

• Optimized Battery charging is designed to work in locations you spend the most amount of time, which is probably why you were told that Location Services has to be turned on.

Optimized Battery Charging is designed to engage only in locations where you spend the most time, such as your home and place of work.

• It could take up to 14 days to learn the charging habits and I have seen this reset myself after an update. It eventually does return to the 80% charging as expected. There are also specific requirements on how many changes in a given location qualify.

After you set up your iPhone, Optimized Battery Charging needs at least 14 days to learn your charging habits, so it won't engage before then. Also, your iPhone needs to have at least 9 charges of 5 hours or more in a given location for Optimized Battery Charging to engage.

If Optimized Battery Charging doesn't activate - Apple Support

The only information that I do not agree with that Apple provided you is that it cannot learn when the device is left plugged in. That has not been my experience and my Mac on Optimized Charging is left plugged in for the most part and only charges to 80%. If I do unplug it and go some place, it will charge to 100% the next time it is plugged in, but quickly returns to the old pattern of charging to 80%, usually after about a day.

In any case, you do not need to worry about your Mac overcharging. A single charge cycle on your battery is how many times the battery capacity has been discharged, not how many times it has been charged. There is no indication that your Battery Health reading is due to your Mac being at 100%, but the charge cycles do play a role in the Battery Health reading.

The decline of a battery (a battery is a consumable) is not linear. For my 2019 MacBook Pro 16" Intel, after 6 months it indicated 94% capacity. But now, after 6-1/2 years, it shows 86% capacity remains. It has been showing that 86% for the past 6 months.

My laptop is connected to the power supply (charger) nearly all the time. It usually is kept by the MacOS at 80% but sometimes charges up to 100% briefly then goes back to 80%. Sometimes it stays at 75%. I don't worry about it. By the way, the Battery Health Optimization may be working exactly as designed for you. Those few times when you exercise the battery to a lower charge level may be enough to keep the battery healthy, including it being kept at 100% at other times. Since we don't know the exact algorithm nor the ideal way to "exercise" a lithium battery, I leave that to the MacOS to manage. A "never exercised" battery might last longer if kept at 80% charge; but one that is exercised once in a while might last longer if kept at 100% in between those episodes.

My suggestion: keep the Mac plugged in whenever possible and leave it to the health management to decide what to do. When the Mac indicates the battery is worn out, replace the battery at an Apple Authorized Service Provider if you plan to keep using that Mac. Similar to car tires: keep inflated as recommended, rotate them as recommended, and replace them when they wear out.

Location Services: I think that is not relevant to battery health. Except that Apple actually says turning off Locations Services can prolong battery life, at least for the iPhone:

Location and Background Location. This indicates that the app is using location services.

• • You can optimize your battery life by turning off Location Services for the app. Turn off in Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
  • In Location Services, you can see each app listed with its permission setting. Apps that recently used location services have an indicator next to the on/off switch.

Batteries - Maximizing Performance - Apple

Finally: battery management on the iPhone is VERY DIFFERENT from battery management on Apple laptops. The iPhone when plugged in will charge up to its maximum level (usually 100%, but can be set lower by the user in Settings) but will stay at a lower charge level until shortly before the pattern of use indicates the iPhone will soon be unplugged and off the charger for a while. Just before that it rapidly charges up to 100% (or the specified maximum level). For laptops, they tend to stay at 80%, period. Or if the user "exercises" the battery adequately (which could be only a very small amount), it could charge up to 100% most of the time, as you are seeing.

The best practice is to plug into power whenever it’s convenient and run on battery only when you cannot connect to power. Your Mac uses Optimized Battery Charging, which is enabled by default. That is designed to charge the battery in a way that balances increased battery lifespan with your personal usage patterns. 

About battery health management in Mac notebooks - Apple Support

To confirm that Optimized Battery Charging is enabled, go to System Settings > Battery then click the (i) to the right of Battery Health.

If your Mac is usually plugged in, macOS will pause charging at 80% full since that’s better for the battery long term. If you frequently run on battery, macOS will charge the battery to 100%. That behavior will change depending on your usage. For example, I use my work MacBook Pro connected to a dock for most of the week, and charging pauses at 80%. If I run on battery a few hours for a couple of days, it will start charging to 100%. If I then keep the Mac plugged in for a couple of days, it will again pause at 80%. When your Mac decides to hold the battery at 80% charge, it will bring it to that level even if the battery is fully charged and the Mac is connected to power, which is what one of my Macs did here:

If charging is paused, you can override that by clicking on the Battery icon in the Menu Bar or Control Center (you may need to enable that in System Settings > Menu Bar) and select Charge to Full Now.

Once ‘trained’ the system is pretty responsive. For example, when my Mac was holding at 80%, a couple of short (30-45 minute) sessions running on battery one morning was sufficient to have macOS decide it was time to bring the battery to a full charge.

The bottom line is that your Mac will manage its battery charging to preserve the health of the battery while supporting your usage patterns. There's no need to micromanage it, let macOS handle it. Note that the 2nd and 3rd screenshots are from a Mac running Sequoia.

I typically use my personal Mac, a 16" M4 Pro MBP, connected to a dock, with very occasional use elsewhere in the house for a few minutes or a couple of hours. The Mac is 11 months old, has 14 cycles on the battery and the battery health is 102%. I typically use my work Mac, a 16" M1 Pro MBP, connected to power but 1-2 days a week I will run for a couple of hours on battery, and 1-2 times per year I will use it mostly on battery for a few days (scientific conferences). That Mac is 3.5 years old, has 196 cycles on the battery and the battery health is 93%. 

I've used Mac laptops since the PowerBook days, my experience has been that health drops from ~100% (my new Macs have mainly ranged from 98-104%, I did have one that started at 112%) to somewhere in the 88-93% range over the first 100-200 cycles (or 2-3 years, whichever comes first), then stay in that range for several hundred more cycles (or 3-4 years, whichever comes first) until they begin their inevitable decline at (with more recent Macs) between 800-1000 total cycles (or 7-8 total years, whichever comes first).

Note that there is both a usage and an absolute time component to battery longevity, even with very little actual use a battery has a finite lifespan, that's down to the chemistry in the battery that stores the power.