The thing about spotty coverage is if your opponent knows the precise nature of it, you have just set up a slideshow where the opponent knows exactly how long until they have until the next shot to purposefully present you a distorted snapshot of what is actually happening. If russia was a bureaucracy of scientists this would still set up a precarious situation... and russia is mostly definitely not a bureaucracy composed of mostly scientists.

What people do when they aren't trained to examine their thinking critically and periodically self reflect on assumptions they may be making is ignore the risks of nefarious manipulation the slideshow presents to them so long as the resolution of each picture is razor sharp and indisputable in its evidence of that one moment in time. To a bullshitter at the top of an organization of bullshitters, this undoubtedly presents a fatally seductive image of being a "sword of truth" to escape the bubble of bullshit they are drowning in/creating when it really hands the ability of the opponent to have impeccable timing.

In a way this is the age old problem of mistaking the map for the territory, since all satellites can truly do is give us very accurate maps, but leaders will always be seduced by the incredible fidelity of their data taken from far above all else no matter what the scientists, data engineers and military experts caution.

Above ALL of this though are the US and China's unmanned spaceplanes. Other countries may possess them, I don't know but those craft can change their orbits arbitrarily without wasting almost any fuel, which makes them entities capable of flanking, tracking, and finding satellites.