Netplan : new way to handle network in Ubuntu 17+

Context

I started recently a new project : turn a fanless computer to a router (actually it will handle more than that but it goes beyond this post focus). I chose Ubuntu Server 18.10, and when I came to network management and configuration, I discover Netplan.

What it does

It gives a bit of abstraction on network management mainly by using __ YAML configuration files__. Examples :

For allowing DHCP address assignation for a given interface

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp3s0:
      dhcp4: true

You may notice there is a renderer key : you can choose between 2 renderers, networkd (used on server) and NetworkManager (used on desktop machines) Below is the system design explanation :

My needs

Having 5 network interfaces on my machine (4 Gigabits LAN + 1 wifi), I wanted to start by assigning comprehensive names. Here it starts :

To rename for example my future WAN interface :

network:
    ethernets:
        enp1s0:
            match:
                macaddress: 40:62:31:01:14:ad
            addresses: []
            dhcp4: true
            set-name: wan

This makes sure I handle the right one by matching with MAC address, and set the comprehensive name I'm waiting for.

After each modification, y ou must run sudo netplan apply to handle changes.

After reboot, the ifconfig command gives me :

wan: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.0.108  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.0.255
        inet6 fe80::4262:31ff:fe01:14ad  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 40:62:31:01:14:ad  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 376  bytes 393184 (393.1 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 7  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 321  bytes 28694 (28.6 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device memory 0xf7c00000-f7c1ffff  

The trap

Few scratches after, I started realizing than it seems to be a bad idea. Many people are angry with it because seems to have no propper and simple way to get rid of it (meaning returning back to /etc/network/interfaces). Also, there is many limitations, the first one I encountered about wifi. I tried to rename wifi interface the same way I did above, and I got an error message telling me for wifi the match condition cannot be used.

That's why I changed my plans by using a Debian 9.6 distro for starting my machine.