react-native-webrtc IOS: Mic is enabled even if only consuming

I got the library to work ('react-native-webrtc'), and I can receive an audio stream. But on iOS, the mic permission is turned on and I can see the orange dot in the top right corner of the screen saying it’s recording, but it shouldn’t. I just want to watch/listen to the stream, it should not be activated.

iOS sees: WebRTC peer connection + microphone permission declared = Shows orange indicator

What I researched: According to WebRTC developers, this is "Working As Intended" because "WebRTC is designed for full-duplex" and "the orange dot does not mean that audio is recorded but that the microphone device is opened." I'm not muting anything - there's no microphone stream to mute. The orange indicator appears because WebRTC reserves microphone resources "just in case," even for receive-only connections.

So I was wondering is there a solution to this problem? Anything works. It can be pure WebRTC, Mediasoup enhanced, low level Objective-C solutions etc. etc.

I'm only receiving audio. But iOS still shows the orange indicator because I believe WebRTC reserves the microphone device even for receive-only connections.

// I only create a MediaSoup Device to RECEIVE audio
const device = new Device();
await device.load({ routerRtpCapabilities: response.routerRtpCapabilities });
    
// Device logs show it CAN produce, even though I never asked for mic access
console.log('Device can produce audio:', device.canProduce('audio')); 
// ^ This logs TRUE even though I never called getUserMedia()

// I only create a CONSUMER transport (receive-only)
if (response.audioPidsToCreate.length > 0) {
    const firstPid = response.audioPidsToCreate[0];
    await createConsumerTransport(firstPid); // Only consuming, not producing
}

and when I consume audio:

const consumeAudio = async (transport, audioPid) => {
  // I'm ONLY consuming (receiving) audio from the server
  const consumerParams = await socket.emitWithAck('consumeMedia', {
    rtpCapabilities: device.rtpCapabilities,
    pid: audioPid,
    kind: 'audio'
  });

  const consumer = await transport.consume(consumerParams);
  
  // Create MediaStream ONLY for playback - no local tracks added
  const { MediaStream } = require('react-native-webrtc');
  const remoteStream = new MediaStream();
  remoteStream.addTrack(consumer.track); // Remote track only
  setRemoteStream(remoteStream);
  
  // Never call getUserMedia, never access microphone
};

Logs:

• LOG rn-webrtc:pc:DEBUG 1 ctor // WebRTC peer connection created
• LOG rn-webrtc:pc:DEBUG 1 setRemoteDescription // Only receiving
• LOG rn-webrtc:pc:DEBUG 1 ontrack // Only getting remote tracks