I think it depends on how those nodes were communicating. If they were communicating via low bandwidth LORA, then yes, I could absolutely see that. But they could also be communicating over point-to-point laser links, in which case you could still maintain a very large connection pipe.

I do see your point, though, in that in order to have a more decentralized infrastructure, we are going to have to accept lower bandwidth than what we are currently used to on the centralized internet.

Considering I already route most of my internet connection over Tor for most day-to-day things anyway, this is something that I am already accepting and getting used to. So the transition won't be as hard for me as it would be for some others.