Meshtastic might start to be useful in a use case like
- the Internet is demolished in an area
- power is not out, or at least everybody has enough batteries to last for a while
- a large actor is not driving around looking for LoRa device broadcasters (this one basically rules out avoiding surveillance)
- All you need is SMS tier texting
It's also got so many limitations, I really don't know what an optimal use case would be.
- Devices can't be too far apart or the connection won't work.
- Devices can't be too close together or the network will get overcongested*
- Devices can't be too many hops away, or the message won't make it.
- Data transfer speeds range between slow and extremely slow
- You need either a specialized piece of hardware - which currently isn't very good - or a separate phone to message people.
* I don't know what a network that's too congested looks like, but if a surveillance state feels like cracking down on communications to the point of shutting down the internet, they could probably rove around finding people with these stations.