> May I ask a dumb question? Why do we need such an awkward transaction
> to begin with?

Because it is allowed per I2C specs? So people will use it.

Interestingly, a patch has just now been proposed which I haven't looked
at but I wanted to let you guys already know:

[PATCH 2/3] i2c: designware: Enable transfer with different target addresses
https://lore.kernel.org/r/20251017-i2c-dw-v1-2-7b85b71c7a87@bootlin.com

Maybe you guys can have a look at it?