ESPHome binding. New requirement for api key causing problems

I’ve updated to the latest version of OH and now an API key is required for ESPHome devices.
Normally this is fine, but I have a product (Konnected Panel Pro) that uses the ESPHome API, but without an encryption key. I’m going to have to jump quite a few hoops to make this work now. Can the API key be optional somehow?

When I put in a bad api key, i get the error:
COMMUNICATION_ERROR
DEVICE_REQUIRES_PLAINTEXT: Device is configured with plaintext api endpoint, but binding is using encryption.