No VPN or exposing ports necessary.

With the ESP32-P4 not having any wireless functionality and instead focusing on being a small SoC, it makes sense to combine it with a second chip that handles features like WiFi and Bluetooth.

This program written with Arduino Code running on ESP8266 (Wemos D1) is just a test to access, read status and control Tuya compatible WiFi Smart Devices (Plugs, Switches, Lights, Window Covers, etc.) ...