Today, I learned that you can read and modify individual BIOS settings from within Linux on ThinkPad laptops:

For example the boot order priority:

~ ❯ sudo cat /sys/class/firmware-attributes/thinklmi/attributes/BootOrder/current_value

USBCD:USBFDD:NVMe1:NVMe0:HDD0:USBHDD:PCILAN

Settings can easily be changed by echoing the new values to the file in sysfs.