Are Android and iOS Minecraft editions on their app stores capable of connecting to Java Edition servers? [duplicate]
Super short answer: No - BUT it is possible via a "bridge" tool like Geyser.
It appears that my original assumption is the case in that mobile versions are still "PE" and require "Bedrock" servers and something like Geyser is needed to allow mobile editions (no longer called, this but they still are essentially the same things, just named differently) to function with something like Paper or Purpur.