Thank you for the links.
I use debian 12 minimal templates a lot so
- I cloned a new template called
template-sys-net:qvm-clone debian-12-minimal template-sys-netand - then installed all the required packages:
qvm-run --user root --pass-io template-sys-net "apt install pciutils gnome-keyring zenity qubes-core-agent-networking qubes-core-agent-network-manager wpasupplicant firmware-iwlwifi qubes-usb-proxy qubes-core-agent-thunar -y && apt autoremove -y".
I used the newly created template to create new qubes: sys-net-ethernet and sys-net-wifi. I assigned ethernet PCI device to the former one and wifi PCI device to the latter one.
I also applied sys-net default properties like documented in this post and set Initial memory to 425 MB as that seems to be the new default.
Everything is working as expected and I can now remove the default net qube created with salt qubesctl state.apply qvm.sys-net.