Using an external SSD for my home folder fails with OS upgrades

At the beginning of 2021, I purchased a new iMac with an internal SSD that had insufficient capacity for all my files. I connected a 2TB SSD and created a new home structure with all my folders and files, changing the home folder location in Users & Groups to reflect the change. Restarting the iMac resulted in the successful login and that continued throughout 2021, including the upgrade to Monterey from Big Sur. In recent months, however, every upgrade has resulted in the OS constructing a new 'Volume' with the name of the external SSD and creating the home folder there; the actual SSD's mount point is changed so that its name appears with " 1" appended. Until now, I have been able to remove the additional creation and revert to my correct setup ... but not with Ventura.

Help!!