Music app on Mac won't play CD through AirPods

I have an external CD drive attached to my MacBook Pro, and I frequently use it to play music CDs. The Music app will play CDs just fine if the audio output is set to internal speakers, to headphones attached via the audio out port, or to headphones attached via USB. However, if I set the audio output to my AirPods (AirPod Pro 2), CDs will not play. Music files on my Mac play just fine via the AirPods, but the Music app won't even start playing a CD. I press the Play button and nothing happens. If I simply switch the audio output to (for example) internal speakers, the CD plays just fine. If I then switch back to the AirPods while the CD is playing, it just stops.

Is this a defect or some insane deliberate limitation? And is there any way to fix this or work around it?