Unfortunately on the new 7 Ultra Wi-Fi only turns on when it is deemed necessary because it supposedly uses the Bluetooth connection to the phone. Unfortunately I often find that my Google Assistant and my Google Voice typing will not work cuz it says not connected to the internet. I fixed this by opening developer options and turning off the automatic Wi-Fi connection. Then I went into connections and turned on the Wi-Fi. Now my Wi-Fi stays connected all the time. I don't know what effect this will have on the battery yet but time will tell. Hopefully Samsung will fix this issue on their own. I did not have this problem with my six classic.
Okay so I guess we're not understanding this when my watch is not connected to my phone it does not automatically connect to Wi-Fi just because it's disconnected from the phone. It only connects to Wi-Fi when it is deemed necessary by an app being used on the watch. Unfortunately when you attempt to use Google services on the watch such as turn on my lights or asking what time it is you don't get a response from Google services because the watch is not already connected to Wi-Fi. Google services does not prompt The Watch to connect to the Wi-Fi automatically. Therefore the watch has to be forced to connect to Wi-Fi prior to attempting to use Google particularly Google Assistant.
On the previous versions of the Galaxy watch anytime it was disconnected from Bluetooth you could select for it to automatically connect to Wi-Fi immediately. Unfortunately on the Galaxy watch 7 in order to save battery I'm assuming it does not automatically connect to Wi-Fi unless an app requires it. Unfortunately by the time it actually connects to Wi-Fi authenticate blah blah blah Google Voice Services already timed out. So by going into developer options turning off the connect automatically to Wi-Fi then going back into the actual Wi-Fi settings and telling it to connect to Wi-Fi my watch continuously stays connected to Wi-Fi Whenever there is a Wi-Fi signal regardless of whether my phone is around or not around or whatever the case which is how my watch 5 and watch 6 worked
Must be something in your configuration or a bug in the 7, then. I never had a problem with the wifi being on auto and getting the remote connection, EXCEPT when my watch could not connect to an incompatible public network. Up until very recently I kept mobile data off on the watch, so I know it was not connecting through that. I turned mobile data back on once I realized that my watch could not connect to public wifi, and when I was not at home, I was only in places wirh public wifi.
I will tell you, though, that carrier selection has absolutely nothing to do with wi-fi, either on your watch or phone - except for wi-fi calling. Perhaps you should put your watch in airplane mode while at home, while keeping the wi-fi and BT on. That should force the watch to be always connected to wi-fi.
Therein lies the problem the watch only connects to Wi-Fi when an app request a Wi-Fi connection. So when using Google Assistant since the watch is not already pre-connected to Wi-Fi Google Assistant times out before the watch makes the Wi-Fi connection when it's requested to make the connection by Google Assistant. Since the watch is not always automatically connected to Wi-Fi like the watch 5 and watch six were Google Assistant will not work when the watch is in Standalone mode not connected to the phone and not connected to LTE unless you force the Wi-Fi to always stay connected. Again on the watch 5 and the watch 6 you did not have to do this because immediately when the watch disconnected from the phone or from LTE it would automatically connect to Wi-Fi regardless of whether it was an app request or not. Again I have read up on this and spoken to Samsung about it and they agree that because of conserving battery power the watch will only connect to Wi-Fi as Wi-Fi is needed and since there is a delay in the Wi-Fi connection when it is as needed the Google Assistant will always time out and say that there is no connection. They have mentioned that they may fix this in a later update.
Also, I had AT&T for years and years, and found they had many dead zones throughout the country (even in very populated areas like parts of S. Florida and Denver), which was unacceptable once LTE became a thing. I finally switched to T-Mobile and have not had a single no coverage zone anywhere (foreign countries included).
