I really like the WT32-ETH01 board. because of
does anyone know of a good alternative for this board
How many gpio do you want?
There are several listed here Ethernet Component — ESPHome
Add I/O expander like MCP23017 or similar…?
You also have the Olimex board that are great and can work with PoE (used quite few ones for some customers and they work since more than 2 years without any problem !