Photoshop :: Why Vector Selection Tool (white Arrow) Change Layer Selection To Another

I have been continually annoyed, when creating a vector mask-heavy document, with trying to select vector mask points by dragging a rectangle only to find that it instead selects a layer higher up which has a larger vector mask.
 
The only workaround is to manually select the points of my mask or to drag a rectangle from outside the canvas, meaning I have to zoom out or scroll to the edge - sometimes annoying if I am zoomed in quite far.
 
I know that the move tool can be set to automatically select a layer, depending on what part of the image is clicked, but why is there not an option to turn this off for vector editing?