Just bring a blue ink pen (very important) 2 passport photos, fill out the paper work at the Sotomor (Chaeng Wattana), get a number go buy a coffee then go see the immigration officer and pay ฿1,900 THB
I personally go in the afternoon around 1300 hours since I’m not a morning person, they are open until 1700 but will stay until the last person is seen with a valid Queue number…
Super simple no need for an agent…unless you want to waste the agent fee
and yes some people were able to finagle the system to open a bank account on a visa exemption stamp
The Russians will be hit hardest because as of 2022 Russia was banned from any SWIFT transactions because of the operations in the Ukraine…so Russians needed somewhere to “Park” there hard currency