There is a long post and poll about LAN only mode. It has been pointed out that in addition to LAN only mode, when not set to LAN only the software should be smart enough to recognize that it is on the same LAN and use direct transfer for status, commands, and camera feed.
In one of my first conversations about connectivity problems with a Bambu Lab employee, I complained that Bambu Studio did not stay connected to the printer and had to reconnect at the start of each print, and did so even if I was connected on the device tab. I was very annoyed with this because the sync printer status in the print dialog always timed out and then I had to refresh and wait. I was even using LAN only mode.
The response was, we do not maintain connections because that costs more for the cloud service.
As for the camera feed, I believe that it does go to the cloud when not in lan only mode. That is why the camera for the X1 does not work in LAN mode.
In order to allow remote access to the camera feed from Handy on a device not on the local network, they must be storing the actual video file in the cloud and then appending to it. The device just keeps downloading the tail of the file. I suspect this is why Handy does not work in LAN only mode.
The entire system was originally designed as a cloud only system. They had to start adding LAN support because people like me would not buy a cloud solution.
In my opinion the system should always use the LAN for communications if possible. If the user wants the print file stored in the cloud it should be an option on the print dialog. Lan ONLY mode should never try to access the cloud. Current the printer supports that, but Bambu Studio does not.
Please add your thoughts to the poll so we can get BBL to improve things for us.