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Is this why I keep getting notifications that such-and-such a website wants access to devices on my local network? I've been denying those left and right lately and didn't understand what on earth they needed access to that for.

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Android 17? If yes, then that's because they added a new permission specifically to block apps from LAN access, then bundled it together with "nearby devices" (one introduced earlier specifically to block Bluetooth and WiFi scanning and point-to-point connections) because apparently they believe the concept of "local network" is too difficult for normies to understand or something - and due to how it's implemented, even apps trying to talk via loopback with themselves get captured in scope, too. The UI won't tell you which is which, though.

That's likely Google's implementation of Local Network Access (https://wicg.github.io/local-network-access/).

The browser delegates passkey plumbing up to the core platform typically, so it already should have the appropriate permissions.

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