device with no area defaults to the first area?

[bogorad]

looks that way. I had my test esp32-c6 configured for "alien territory" but then deleted that area. and the device started to show my ibeacon if the first (alphabetically) area.

[agittins]

A scanner that has no area assigned will cause Bermuda to throw a repair issue to fix it.

Note also that esphome scanners are now shown as two devices in ha, one in esphome and another in Bluetooth. Bermuda checks both devices to see if an area has been assigned to either, so it's possible that's where the area is coming from.

It's also possible that the ha device entry is in a weird state that Bermuda doesn't expect (like maybe it still has an area id assigned, but that area id is invalid).

You'll need to provide more info for a reasonable answer, though.