Does anyone also experience having to connect to account everytime webstorm is closed?

It's most likely because of the switch to OAuth 2

so how would be the right way to connect?

You can use M2M credentials - here's a help article on it https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/netsuite/ns-online-help/section_162686838198.html#subsect_162755332391

okay got it, will check. i can’t see an email regarding the change….

It was in the Release Notes for 2024.2. If you're running the 2024.2 version of the plugin, you'll have this behavior even if your account hasn't been upgraded to 2024.2 yet.

got it, that’s my case