SEPP
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If you've left your job you always have the option of withdrawing from your 401k and just paying the 10% penalty. In the 24% bracket, this is still federally optimal as long as your bracket in the year you're withdrawing is 12% or less (really, 14% or less, but there's no federal 14% bracket). State taxes may cause it to be optimal overall even if not federally optimal. It's worth considering this - when you are taking a deduction/adjustment to income (like a 401k contribution) at the 24% marginal bracket you are immediately saving 24% of each dollar saved on your tax bill. If that dollar then comes out at the 12% bracket, even after the 10% penalty, it's like it's being taxed at 22%, which is better than it being taxed at 24%.
Of course, what federal bracket you'll be in if unemployed and living off of savings needs to be worked out. But certainly my expectation is the income in unemployment would be below your current income. Even if you had nothing in savings or taxable brokerage accounts and were 100% withdrawing from a pretax 401k, you'd only be withdrawing your actual expenses, which I have every reason to believe are below your current income (as you are making 401k contributions and presumably not incurring a bunch of debt at the same time)
So, not only is it sometimes just worth paying the penalty, there's also a range of ways in which the penalty can be avoided: hardship withdrawals (the most relevant for a job loss scenario), or (admittedly this is more compelling for long term job loss or retirement) convert to roth (paying taxes at conversion time), wait 5 years, withdraw the amount converted. (There'a also SEPP/72t but this is even harder and not worth really considering unless you expect you're retired for life)

Hello everyone, I am a 34-year-old working on an H1B visa in NY. I plan on returning to India soon and have a significant amount of money in my 401k. I am looking for ways to maximize the money I can withdraw from my 401k. While I do not have an immediate need, I was thinking of using my NRO tax-free benefit. My current plan is to convert the 401k to a rollover IRA, then use SEPP to circumvent the 10% penalty and 30% tax. My CPA was not too helpful in offering clarity. Is anyone familiar with the process and can tell me what I am missing? I am also open to other strategies if anyone is aware of one. Thank you in advance!

If you're making a long-term plan to retire early or something, then you should put the money in a tax advantaged account. The money can be gotten with a roth conversion ladder or a 72t SEPP. So, it's still worth it.
But, if it's for an emergency or just to fund something you want sooner, then I think there are two good choices:
1. Put it in taxable like you're suggesting.
2. Make Roth contributions, IRA first, then if your 401k allows, do roth contribs for the 401k and do an in-service rollover or do a megabackdoor using after-tax contributions.

If you've left your job you always have the option of withdrawing from your 401k and just paying the 10% penalty. In the 24% bracket, this is still federally optimal as long as your bracket in the year you're withdrawing is 12% or less (really, 14% or less, but there's no federal 14% bracket). State taxes may cause it to be optimal overall even if not federally optimal. It's worth considering this - when you are taking a deduction/adjustment to income (like a 401k contribution) at the 24% marginal bracket you are immediately saving 24% of each dollar saved on your tax bill. If that dollar then comes out at the 12% bracket, even after the 10% penalty, it's like it's being taxed at 22%, which is better than it being taxed at 24%.
Of course, what federal bracket you'll be in if unemployed and living off of savings needs to be worked out. But certainly my expectation is the income in unemployment would be below your current income. Even if you had nothing in savings or taxable brokerage accounts and were 100% withdrawing from a pretax 401k, you'd only be withdrawing your actual expenses, which I have every reason to believe are below your current income (as you are making 401k contributions and presumably not incurring a bunch of debt at the same time)
So, not only is it sometimes just worth paying the penalty, there's also a range of ways in which the penalty can be avoided: hardship withdrawals (the most relevant for a job loss scenario), or (admittedly this is more compelling for long term job loss or retirement) convert to roth (paying taxes at conversion time), wait 5 years, withdraw the amount converted. (There'a also SEPP/72t but this is even harder and not worth really considering unless you expect you're retired for life)

Hello everyone, I am a 34-year-old working on an H1B visa in NY. I plan on returning to India soon and have a significant amount of money in my 401k. I am looking for ways to maximize the money I can withdraw from my 401k. While I do not have an immediate need, I was thinking of using my NRO tax-free benefit. My current plan is to convert the 401k to a rollover IRA, then use SEPP to circumvent the 10% penalty and 30% tax. My CPA was not too helpful in offering clarity. Is anyone familiar with the process and can tell me what I am missing? I am also open to other strategies if anyone is aware of one. Thank you in advance!

If you're making a long-term plan to retire early or something, then you should put the money in a tax advantaged account. The money can be gotten with a roth conversion ladder or a 72t SEPP. So, it's still worth it.
But, if it's for an emergency or just to fund something you want sooner, then I think there are two good choices:
1. Put it in taxable like you're suggesting.
2. Make Roth contributions, IRA first, then if your 401k allows, do roth contribs for the 401k and do an in-service rollover or do a megabackdoor using after-tax contributions.