It's on the company computer, but I have a backup from earlier today that seems to have the same code.

bool load_metadata() {
    uint8_t marker_field = EEPROM.read(0);
    // Write to ROM if marker has not been set
    if (marker_field != MARKER) {
        metadata = {
            0,
        };
        EEPROM.put(1, metadata);
        EEPROM.update(0, MARKER);
    }
    else {
        EEPROM.get(1, metadata);
    }
}

I have to admit, my experience with C++ is rather limited, last Monday was the first time in my life that I used a C++ compiler. I had some issues getting it to work with Visual Studio, so I ended up using VS Code WSL with clang 😅.