How to disable VM 404 handle

[beny.rfg]

Hello,

based on this post https://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=135091.msg469998#msg469998 I understand that the way how VM handle with non-existing URL is intentional. Hovever, according to SEO experts this is not a good practise (event if the canonical url is set). The setting in VM config "Enable VirtueMart 404 error handling" looks like it should turn off this behavior, but it does not work. Jaspers had the same problem.

What I want to:
www.example.com/shop/non-existing-slug-asdfdfgfg - 404 HTTP status and Joomla 404 page is displayed

Current behavior:
www.example.com/shop/non-existing-slug-asdfdfgfg - 200 HTTP status and VM shop page or last visited category page is displayed

My question is, it is possible to avoid this behavior?

Joomla 5 / VM 4.2.18

Thank you for any ideas.