They could also just cut and tip both ends of the Ethernet cable I have running between my house and my outbuilding too. I probably wouldn't notice if I'm asleep.

Metaforgotten, but this is a very standard attack surface, you don't need to imagine such a close tap, just imagine that at any point in the multi node internet an attacker has a node and snoops the traffic in its role as a relaying router.

With inflation looks like its now a $5 wrench :-)

https://xkcd.com/538/

AmazonBasics is good enough in this case! ;)