How do I build an automation test framework for a network device(load balancer, to be precise)?

I recently joined as a QA in a company that builds network devices. We need to build an automation test suite for a load balancer. I have experience with building automated tests for web pages, using Page Object Model and selenium, but in this context, that approach seems to be making the whole framework over-engineered as writing whole classes for just config commands seems a bit contrived.

On the flip side, if i just create a connection handler class(wrapper on top of paramiko..similar to netmiko) and individually send commands in the tests, it might later cause a maintenance nightmare as there are thousands of tests.So, I am a little confused on how to approach this, though a bit biased towards the over engineered, but safe approach.

I am quite sure that many have faced this situation before me. I just want to know if there is standard approach to design an automation test framework to test network devices(like Page Object Model for web based testing). Or if there are some best practices that i should know in this regard.Thanks, in advance, for the help.