Switch as Light helpers permanent?

Configuration
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1

Is there a way to make these permanent?
I have situation where I test multiple firmwares for a Zigbee coordinator and many times the z2m has to be restored from backup. This leads to loss of al Light helpers and I have to recreate them in the GUI.
Is there anything to make them stay even when underlying switch get removed in MQTT?

2

As an alternative, this still works (from my own config). It’s now unsupported though.

light:
  - platform: switch
    name: living_room_lamp
    entity_id: switch.living_room_lamp

The more longwinded way would be to make a template light.

More details here: Switch as Light - from yaml (Change device type - switch_as_x).