Is there a way to make direct lighting not get rid of ambient occlusion?

I know it’s an old post but…

You would want to use SSAO, HBAO or DFAO instead of relying on baked AO because of the reason you just mentioned. Baked AO only provides “self AO”, meaning no impact from close objects/situations. It creates inconsistencies.

Unless we’re talking about baking the AO via the lightmass settings. And that is way too costly in memory.