> They're almost always relying on VLANs behind the scenes to separate the WAN and LAN ports.

I don't believe this is true. I expect that what's going on there is the WAN and LAN ports on the switch [0] are in separate bridges.

Why do you believe that they're using VLANs behind the scenes? It seems silly to add and remove a whole-ass VLAN tag to traffic based on what port it comes in on. Do you have switch chip or other relevant documentation that indicates that this is what's going on?

[0] or WAN and LAN interfaces, if the ports are actually separate, entirely-independent interfaces, rather than bound up in a switch

"Use WAN as LAN" is a pretty common option in aftermarket firmwares like DD-WRT or OpenWRT. I know that OpenWRT displays them as VLANs.

That said, this is in no way my area of expertise.