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That's how TI's SmartConfig works, via the length field, so you could just use any IoT chip that implements that, of which TI offers a bunch.

Also supported by Espressif under their own name “Airkiss/ESPTouch”.

Unfortunately since the chip doesn’t support 5G WiFi it’s a mess where you need to switch the phone to a different 2.4 only network, configure the device, then switch back. Better to just use BLE..

https://www.keacher.com/xmas24/ uses OOK for data communication, with the benefit of energy harvesting the WiFi signal to not require batteries.

Reverse engineering as a last resort or is this not possible?

I'm no good at reverse engineering. I run away screaming in horror at the sight of Ghidra.

Cleaning up the Linux code and publishing it is on my TODO list...

Nowdays I'd just use WPA3