Still connected after deleting default gateway

This is sort of an update/continuation of https://msfn.org/board/topic/184748-help-modifying-windows-route-tablevpn/

I'm not an expert at routes, but only know a few things I was told about it.

Something has changed such that if I delete the default gateway from the route table (route delete 0.0.0.0.), the connection remains. I tested it after deletion with successful pings returns to several websites, and also by loading several websites. Below is a copy after the deletion. Something is keeping the connection that did not before, but I do not know what. I need to be able to manually remove the connection, and then to add it back.

Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
      192.168.1.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.1.221    281
    192.168.1.221  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.1.221    281
    192.168.1.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.1.221    281
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     192.168.1.221    281
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.1.221    281