Technically, 1.22λ/D is the angle for the first dark circular ring of the Airy disc (first zero of the relevant first-order Bessel function [0]). But you are still right that the host star needs to be blocked out in some way to produce a useful image. I think NASA is working on some ways to do this, see [1].

[0] https://oeis.org/A245461

[1] https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/1015/