I love the fact that in the bottom topology, the switch chip is quite likely using VLANs internally to separate the traffic.
For example MikroTik CRS1xx/CRS2xx switches would definitely just create vlans internally (correct me if I’m wrong though, but I don’t believe there’s someone on earth who actually understands these switches), if you try to separate a port group.
In fact even without any configuration they will create a vlan (4095 I think) that is shared amongst all the ports, so you’re kinda fucked if you want to avoid vlans for ideological reasons lol.