I recently went down the rabbithole on a friend’s 5G router. It’s in the countryside and I was suspicious if 5G is even available, as the salesperson claimed.
There are no 5G towers around there. But.
Turns out there is a special mode where the device connects to 2 4G towers, and it’s still called 5G. However, there was only 1 (4G) tower available and it was a little unclear if the device then still claims a 5G connection becauseit potentially could connect to a 2nd tower.
So, it could just be an issue of reporting the connection differently. At least some of the time.