This works because many devices can safely ignore pin-swapped i2c traffic on their input. I’ve tried this successfully with the popular VL53 ToF sensors connected to an ESP32. Report comment ...

It’s a WiFi SoC that despite its ESP32 name contains a RISC-V core in place of the Tensilica core in the ESP32s we know, and uses the ESP8266 pin-out rather than that of its newer sibling.