I wasn’t aware of the possibility that the Roman connection to the Trojans was anything other than imperial propaganda.
Yep. Aeneas appears as an Italian founding hero centuries before the Empire... by the 6th century BC on Etruscan vases and even in ancient literature.
https://www.aeneasroute.org/en/the-myth/
It’s interesting that Homer alludes to some tradition about Aeneas but doesn’t say what it is, and he keeps Aeneas a very minor character. The Italian tradition seems based on something else besides Homer.