That is a known workaround, but that was not needed on my J3.3 / VM3 webshop. This issue is since J4.4 and VM4.2.
For some pages I uses this workaround already (also in Joomla 3). In have some hidden menu items to solve that. But the problem now is that there are many urls which I can't make a menu item for. I tried to use a "system link" menu item to get that specific url in it, but that doesn't work.
For example: For an account registration I use the VM account registration page, which has the url "index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=user". So my first thought was to create a menu item for that url. But I can't. The standaard menu items for account and users are different. Tried to use a system link menu to get this 'custom' , but that doesn't work. I have many urls where it is impossible to get menu items for.
So there must be another reason why those links keeps opening as if it is the homepage (startpage). There must be a difference between J3 and J4, which I hope it is a setting somewhere.