It isnt worth it, but at least in Canada and USA we've given the ISPs billions of dollars to service them, and they keep adding a token amount of people and saying shucks all the money is gone we couldn't do what we said, and then we give them more. Rinse and repeat.

It's not. But fiber isn't a regulated utility like power is, so the argument is moot until that changes.

Fiber wouldn't be a one-time charge though. There's regular ongoing maintenance needed for a fiber network.

There's an old joke in the telecom world:

Q: If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and you could only take one thing with you, what would you take?

A: I would take a small bundle of fiber optic cable. As soon as I was on the island, I'd make a small hole in the sand and bury it. As soon as I turn my back there would be someone with a backhoe there to dig it up.

The cost of sending crew out to fix a 10 mile fiber run servicing a single household would wipe out any possible profit from that subscriber for more than 100 years. Now multiple that by how many 10 mile+ fiber runs we'd need to service all those widespread low-density rural customers.

Those satellites are all earning profit everywhere else around the world they can service. That line to a 100 person community taking decades to be profitable is money the ISPs dont want to spend because it'll take decades.

Fiber without cell towers are pointless. Ships and boats commonly have starlink internet now, because it is so much better than any alternative. Cell towers are needed for fiber to compete.

The pacific has some deep trenches, I don't think fiber runs across them.

No, I'm saying that the ships would like it. Also having used geosynchronous satellite internet I have first hand experience that the lag sucks. Better than nothing, but Starlink has less lag. Probably faster but I don't know what the latest speeds are. Still geosynchronous covers a lot of area which means you are sharing with a lot of people.

Cruise ships pay a lot for internet because their customers want it. Crew on all ships want it for their breaks.

Starlink isn't worth it for just the above, but add in rural people on land and it makes sense. Though I understand the astronomers hate it.

that don’t have to be constantly replaced.

Its by delibarate choice

Increase the orbit by a bit and it quickly goes from about 5 years to decades and decades for reentry

The entire point is that they will be replaceing them that often anyways, may as well get some other benefits