paul kgyy wrote:

The last time I flew through the Cleveland Class B I was IMC eastbound
via DJB to Youngstown. I got vectored out over Lake Erie before I got
to Dryer, so in that sense my "next fix" would be "behind me".

exactly. Flying out of SQL, you get RV OAK V244 ECA. Basically
they vector you onto V244. Often they just given you a heading
to fly right after departure with no additional "expect V244."
So you are still on RV to OAK. Often they say "fly heading
XXX and intercept V244" after you are already past OAK.
Technically you are still be in RV to OAK and therefore
should fly it. In practice this might one of those situations
where you are 3nm to V244 vs. 10 to OAK. They would probably
expect you to go to V244 rather than fly the 20 nm round
trip back to your initial lost comm point.

This is kind of like holding until your filed enroute time /arrival
time. If you hold you tie up all the airspace so even though they
say hold all controllers say "just land ASAP."

Gerald