Spotify for Apple Watch is still basically a remote for Spotify on iOS, presumably due to some contracts between Spotify and Samsung.

So although Spotify could technically implement a standalone Apple Watch App since at least WatchOS 6 (released over a year ago now), they haven’t, which means you always need to carry your Phone with you. Their support Forum is full of complaints about this, with no proper reaction or explanation from their side.

The Apple TV app also does not work properly, requiring to re-login often and can‘t be controlled properly by iPhone.