I don’t know if this is possible or even advisable, but theoretically maybe the NIC could be hardware passed through to a linux VM, and then configure the host to use the guest VM as a gateway?
i don’t know about advisable, but i know it works because i do this.
intel won’t allow you to get wifi 6 speeds in ap mode with their linux driver; so i created a windows vm with pci passthrough to use the windows driver to get wifi 6 speeds. it passes along the connection via dns & ip masquerade to the soft router (also a vm) via kvm/qemu based software defined networking; so technically the connections from my laptop & smartphones go through 2 different networks before making it to my isp.
It’d be kind of a nuts solution but it’d get points for creativity. Guest VM takes hardware control of the NIC and the host connects to the VM like it’s a separate device on the same network.
that’s how my software router works and i always thought of it as hacky; this is the first time i’ve heard/thought otherwise.