diff --git a/server/RouteController.cpp b/server/RouteController.cpp
index 943a4c1..fca70a6 100644
--- a/server/RouteController.cpp
+++ b/server/RouteController.cpp
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
 const uint32_t RULE_PRIORITY_VPN_FALLTHROUGH     = 21000;
 const uint32_t RULE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT_NETWORK     = 22000;
 const uint32_t RULE_PRIORITY_DIRECTLY_CONNECTED  = 23000;
-const uint32_t RULE_PRIORITY_UNREACHABLE         = 24000;
+const uint32_t RULE_PRIORITY_UNREACHABLE         = 32000;
 
 const uint32_t ROUTE_TABLE_LOCAL_NETWORK  = 97;
 const uint32_t ROUTE_TABLE_LEGACY_NETWORK = 98;
@@ -639,10 +639,10 @@
 }
 
 // Add a new rule to look up the 'main' table, with the same selectors as the "default network"
-// rule, but with a lower priority. Since the default network rule points to a table with a default
-// route, the rule we're adding will never be used for normal routing lookups. However, the kernel
-// may fall-through to it to find directly-connected routes when it validates that a nexthop (in a
-// route being added) is reachable.
+// rule, but with a lower priority. We will never create routes in the main table; it should only be
+// used for directly-connected routes implicitly created by the kernel when adding IP addresses.
+// This is necessary, for example, when adding a route through a directly-connected gateway: in
+// order to add the route, there must already be a directly-connected route that covers the gateway.
 WARN_UNUSED_RESULT int addDirectlyConnectedRule() {
     Fwmark fwmark;
     Fwmark mask;
@@ -654,8 +654,10 @@
                         fwmark.intValue, mask.intValue, IIF_NONE, OIF_NONE, UID_ROOT, UID_ROOT);
 }
 
-// Add a rule to preempt the pre-defined "from all lookup main" rule. Packets that reach this rule
-// will be null-routed, and won't fall-through to the main table.
+// Add an explicit unreachable rule close to the end of the prioriy list to make it clear that
+// relying on the kernel-default "from all lookup main" rule at priority 32766 is not intended
+// behaviour. We do flush the kernel-default rules at startup, but having an explicit unreachable
+// rule will hopefully make things even clearer.
 WARN_UNUSED_RESULT int addUnreachableRule() {
     return modifyIpRule(RTM_NEWRULE, RULE_PRIORITY_UNREACHABLE, RT_TABLE_UNSPEC, MARK_UNSET,
                         MARK_UNSET);
@@ -813,18 +815,6 @@
         return ret;
     }
 
-    // If there's no nexthop, this is a directly connected route. Add it to the main table also, to
-    // let the kernel find it when validating nexthops when global routes are added.
-    if (!nexthop) {
-        ret = modifyIpRoute(action, RT_TABLE_MAIN, interface, destination, NULL);
-        // A failure with action == ADD && errno == EEXIST means that the route already exists in
-        // the main table, perhaps because the kernel added it automatically as part of adding the
-        // IP address to the interface. Ignore this, but complain about everything else.
-        if (ret && !(action == RTM_NEWROUTE && ret == -EEXIST)) {
-            return ret;
-        }
-    }
-
     return 0;
 }