Using Ethernet, iPhone and iMessage

so, for any number of reasons, I use my phone at home on airplane mode and plugged into an ethernet cable/adapter. We don't need to go into the reasons. But recently iMessage stopped allowing me to send texts via actually apple iMessage texts (blue bubbles, not talking about green ones). It used to work fine. Now it no longer allows it. I can receive it. I can send on my MBP which also ethernet only while at home. So, in order to send, I must first activate cellular, then send it and then turn it off. This is a pain. Is there a workaround besides just leaving cellular off (because I get really poor cellular service at home) - so the message is still sending via ethernet either way....

This is what ChatGPT said about it:

🔧 Likely Cause: Airplane Mode disables messaging services at a system level

When Airplane Mode is enabled:

• Cellular radios are off, which is expected.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are also off by default, but can be manually re-enabled.
• Apple services like iMessage and FaceTime often require Wi-Fi (or cellular) to fully activate when Airplane Mode is on. Ethernet is not officially supported in this edge case.

Even though Ethernet provides internet, iOS does not fully recognize it as a substitute for Wi-Fi in all subsystems. It will let background services (like push notifications) work, which is why you can receive iMessages, but the UI-level sending function seems to still check whether Wi-Fi or cellular is active before enabling sending.

✅ Confirmed behaviors on iPhone:

• iOS supports Ethernet via Lightning-to-Ethernet adapters, but it’s a niche feature mostly aimed at developers or kiosk setups.
• Certain apps or services don’t treat Ethernet as a valid network for activation or handshaking.
• iMessage can receive through Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) on Ethernet, but sending requires more active checks by the Messages app (which may only pass if Wi-Fi or cellular is on).

Thoughts?