I don't see how this gets around a VPN? I still need a host in your example. That's what I'm paying a VPN for, a bunch of hosts around the world that are relatively fast.
SSH is the best network service multi-tool. From remote shell, to file transfer, to network routing.
In this case you've got a network with some devices on it in location A, and a device in location B and you'd like to make B believe it's on the LAN of location A. Both a traditional VPN such as wireguard or OpenVPN and SSH with SOCKS can accomplish this.