I’m on Windows 11…
I’ve been piping everything audio and MIDI through a standalone bidule (PC and Mac versions exist) instance for years. It serves as a kind of patch bay, and I can insert whatever chain of audio and MIDI plugins I like. On windows it supports VST2/VST3/CLAP (Maybe the pro-tools one too?). On Mac it does all those plus AU.
Personally, I also use ASIO Link Pro (Windows only…Do Macs use ASIO at all?), and keep most things in the ASIO realm, but bidule will work with the other device types too (MME/WDM/WASPI).