The XIAO series of ESP32s is exactly that.

They are 4x the size though, almost exactly double in both length and width.

https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/XIAO_ESP32C3_Getting_Started/

It's also got 15 times as many GPIO pins as the board in the fine article.

And this PCBA will be smaller than the battery in most applications anyway.

It only has 14 pins, 3 of which are 5v, 3.3v, and ground, so slight exaggeration :-) point taken though

These are nifty. I've used them in production, but if you want to make used of the charger it's difficult.

These are quite lovely. Ceramic SMD antennas are awesome.

Definitely would be more functional with more of the GPIOs exposed.

If you want an ESP32 dev board with GPIOs exposed there are dozens (or hundreds, maybe thousands) of other options out there. It makes sense not to expose them when you're going for the smallest possible footprint.

I don't know, I see enough space for four GPIOs there. Not holes, obviously, but pads should be very workable.

It could be even smaller without that USB C port and have more GPIO pads.

there is plenty of those already and not all too hard to make yourself, see LilyGo T01-C3

Its of format of original ESP8 so you get serial + 3 IO pins

Can anyone suggest a small module that supports 5 GHz WiFi?