Since not all IEEE 802.1 Ethernet frames can be converted to IEEE 802.11 frames using the Linux bridging infrastructure isn't sufficient (even though it can do fancy things like bridge non-Ethernet and Ethernet interfaces; Like bridging PPP interfaces and IEEE 802.1 Interfaces). You genuinely need a tunnel if you want support all Ethernet functionality.

I'm highly skeptical that bridging is insufficient for most use cases. After all, most Linux-based access points are using standard bridging.

Indeed that is true that for most cases WiFi can do the things users want. My note was that not everything you can do with Ethernet frames can be converted to WiFi frames.

One such example is Ethernet multicast.