Here’s the remarkably short thread where I found out about the special cable. I fished it out now hoping that we could simply ask other people who’d tried, but this seems more niche than I thought.
Your anecdotal evidence on the lack of Home Assistant PC-powered Wyze bridge sensor failures still seems compelling.
(This arose in context of bridge stability, not avoiding low battery death, so your new theory lends a whole new facet to the tableau.)
Edit:
The linked, even older thread does have more participation.