I second this. I am currently in a middle sized city in Germany that is not exactly focused on technology. I didn't expect to see any users (and I didn't). Even at significantly higher adoption, I can't imagine that I would ever see another soul on there.
Such a change would make the tool a lot more useful in areas like mine.
We just launched this today. Though it is a bad idea to roll out globally for this idea. I did want to spread the word and then target area wise. Not sure if it is gonna work.
I think you best bet would be to use either real world population density, or connected users density to scale the communication distance, so that people don't have to stay alone, and at the same time you still have a meaningfully limited range.
I don't think anyone will just stay connected alone in the hope that someone else may connect later.
Such a change would make the tool a lot more useful in areas like mine.