[iwlwifi] Intel WiFi 7260: iwlwififw not loaded

Running FreeBSD 13.0-STABLE #45 stable/13-n248789-9d96f4d3491: Thu Dec 30 23:02:26 CET
2021 amd on a Lenovo Thinkpad E540, which has the following chipset as WiFi chipset
(loaded with the if_iwm module):

iwm0@pci0:5:0:0:        class=0x028000 rev=0x73 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x08b2
subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x4262 vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Wireless 7260'
    class      = network
    bar   [10] = type Memory, range 64, base 0xf1c00000, size 8192, enabled
    cap 01[c8] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D3  current D0
    cap 05[d0] = MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit enabled with 1 message
    cap 10[40] = PCI-Express 2 endpoint max data 128(128) FLR RO NS
                 max read 128
                 link x1(x1) speed 2.5(2.5) ASPM L1(L0s/L1) ClockPM enabled
    ecap 0001[100] = AER 1 0 fatal 0 non-fatal 0 corrected
    ecap 0003[140] = Serial 1 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    ecap 0018[14c] = LTR 1
    ecap 000b[154] = Vendor [1] ID cafe Rev 1 Length 20

(only works if compiled into the kernel, otherwise iwmfw is NOT loaded and the proper
firmware is also NOT loaded).

When putting if_iwlwifi_load="YES" into /boot/loader.conf.local, the if_ kernel module
gets loaded, but the proper firmware module does not get loaded automatically (this is
the same behaviour introduced in the vain of iflib with iwm on this platform within the
past years, rendering iwm from working to non working on this platform).

Manually loading the proper FW module (supposedly iwlwifi-7260-9.ucode.ko) does not make
this chipset going to work (setup with re0 and wlan0 on lagg0). Somehow the chipset seems
not recognized ...

Kind reagrds,

oh