everyone may have assumed you knew about domestic transfers, as it's quite common here. I use my bank app to pay for almost everything, from food delivery, to rent.
don't use them, then. Dee tends to save money on smaller transactions, with a lower fee but slightly worse exchange rate. Bigger transactions may be better via the method you described.
you'll need to start with 800,000 baht in a Thai bank. After a year of monthly deposits of 65k from the US, you can switch to the income method.
There are a few different ways you can do it. I'd suggest getting a non-O visa in the US. I believe that will give you 90 days in Thailand.
You can get everything arranged and apply for a yearly extension in that 90 days. That includes getting a bank account and getting the 800k transferred in.
I had one payment misidentified as a local transfer. Turns out it went through Kasikorn before hitting Bangkok bank. I spent a couple of hours getting it straightened out and getting Kasikorn to provide me with a paper saying it was international.
The IO didn't look at it. But ymmv.
As others have said, the drop-down menu in Wise contains a "funds for long-term stay" option which is supposed to code it as an international transaction.