no, he asked about one retirement visa. He didn't specify how often before getting the retirement he wanted to use exemption. Let's assume it's not 0, as then the question would not make much sense.
lol, are you suggesting that the well-known fact that exemption isn't gonna work forever is a rumor on Facebook? 🤣 You do realize that you are embarrassing yourself?
If you only plan to stay 6 months total, it's much easier just doing visa exempt + extension twice. It doesn't prohibit studying (no visa prohibits that) and you save yourself the hassle of the non-ED and its extension. There are also stories about immigrations officers not understanding that studying is actually a thing and wrongly assuming that having a non-ED visa, or having had one in the past, means that you are currently trying to stay in Thailand unrighteously (so if you get a non-ED now, you can be 'punished' for that until forever).
I don't understand a few things in your post. You speak of "bypassing", but you do have a valid driving license from another country by the context? So you should be able (with an IDP) to prove that you can drive to the Thai authorities? Then what stages are 'bypassed'? Of nobody with an overseas license (and IDP) would be required to take lessons and exams.
Second, although the "switch" would make some sense (what would be the point of forfeiting one's license if you just have another one you could drive on), the Thai DLT doesn't actually switch your license. You get the Thai license in top of your current.
In most western countries this is not the case. They actually switch, as it says. So if your first licence obtained is Thai, then the procedure to get one from a western country is interestingly complicated (if you don't want to do an exam again): get Thai license, get Thai IDP (can get after 2 years), switch both to license in different country, get IDP in that country (normally it doesn't require two years, Thailand is a little off with that), go back to Thailand, get Thai license again using foreign one and IDP. Then you have both (and still one IDP).