When we activate an approval, all new sales orders are created with an on-hold status.

SO type is set to NOT be on hold by default.

So we want the approval enabled, but we do not want new sales orders to default to "on-hold" unless the approval criteria are met.

Remove hold is what triggers the approval process, so it does not matter if they have "Hold Orders on Entry" option disabled.

If you setup an approval map, all documents will always be created in Hold status so when they are taken off hold the system will review map conditions and assigned an approver if the conditions are true

Approval map will always override any hold documents option under preferences screen.