Is it possible to create/join servers without changing scenes?

In the project that im hoping to remake with photon+truesync, the entire game only uses one scene, menus just appear on top of the game world, and levels are all stored in an external text file (all gameobjects that make up the level are destroyed and created when loading new levels).

The tutorial calls PhotonNetwork.LoadLevel("ScenePath") from the start button, which does:

    public static void LoadLevel(string levelName)
    {
        networkingPeer.SetLevelInPropsIfSynced(levelName);
        PhotonNetwork.isMessageQueueRunning = false;
        networkingPeer.loadingLevelAndPausedNetwork = true;
        SceneManager.LoadScene(levelName);
    }

I tried doing the first three lines manually without the last line: SceneManager.LoadScene(), I kinda expected it not to work and it doesn't.. I'm not sure what to investigate from here

thanks! and apologies if this is more suited for the PUN board, I have a feeling there is different considerations for doing it with TrueSync