Title is self explanatory. For background, I am currently running Asahi Linux on my M1 MBP. Whenever I connected the hotspot without data being turned on, it somehow still worked like any regular wifi. I even ran several updates in the system and downloaded multiple apps in this wifi, which I find it amusing. But out of curiosity, I wanted to know from you guys that what could the reason be for this.
Is the phone essentially acting as a fancy Layer 3 extender?
No idea about that, tho even my old phone, which was Xiaomi 12T, could do that.