RS485 to UART with SMD72D-M *ONLY* works with software UART on esp8266

Hardware
,
1

I have about 20 ESP32 boards and only a few ESP8266 boards which are mostly already in use somewhere. I just spent hours trying to get an SMD72D-M-2 energy meter to work with the ESP32. I failed. At some point i came across this post and thought I should maybe try using software UART. But according to this Github Issue Software UART only works on the ESP8266 and as soon as I tried using software UART on an ESP8266 it actually started working immediately. I’m really confused! In my mind hardware UART is “better” as it also supports higher baud rates (or at least works better with them). Why can’t I use hardware UART?! It’s also kind of annoying. I just used the exact same code for the esp8266 and esp32 in esphome, except the pins:

#rest of the code here

uart:
  id: mod_uart
  tx_pin: 4 # 1 for ESP32
  rx_pin: 5 # 3 for ESP32
  baud_rate: 9600
  stop_bits: 1

modbus:
  uart_id: mod_uart
  id: modbus1
  
modbus_controller:
  - id: controller
    address: 1
    modbus_id: modbus1

sensor:

  - platform: modbus_controller
    modbus_controller_id: controller
    name: "Frequency"
    id: "frequency"
    register_type: read
    value_type: FP32
    address: 0x0046
    accuracy_decimals: 2

I’d love to be able to just use on of my ESP32 and understand why this happening! Thank in advance!