How do I keep my screens ON when locking MacOS Ventura?

I have a problem when I lock my MacOS Ventura MBP. My external monitors take an eternity to wake up after being asleep. I want to log back in and return to work immediately. The built-in display wakes almost immediately. I've tried using the "prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off" option. It doesn't work. When I lock the screen, all the displays are immediately turned off. I have also played around with screensaver settings to no avail. How do I prevent my displays from sleeping? I don't mind if the built-in display sleeps. ***Edit for adding detail*** It seems to me that it is some power-saving feature of Ventura to immediately put all displays to sleep when the system is locked. The screensavers will start if I leave my system without locking, but I always lock my screen when I get up and leave my computer (I'm in an office environment). If I leave the machine like this, the screen lock will eventually be activated (the screens don't turn off). However, if I hit ctrl-command-q, the screens always turn off immediately. Here are my lock screen settings: The external monitors are the same and details are below. One is attached via the HDMI port on the side of the M1 MBP. The other is attached via Apple's own TB4 to USB/HDMI/TB4 dongle.

DELL S2721QS:
  Resolution:	5120 x 2880 (5K/UHD+ - Ultra High Definition Plus)
  UI Looks like:	2560 x 1440 @ 60.00Hz
  Main Display:	Yes
  Mirror:	Off
  Online:	Yes
  Rotation:	Supported