[MayeulC]

Well, I think that you generally don't control beam dispersion /angular resolution that well (please correct me if I'm wrong). So the received power is probably a lot better if you aim closer.

On the other hand, the latency penalty might be quite steep. There is probably a latency/bandwidth tradeoff that needs to be solved for every packet. I think today's internet has the same set of tradeoffs (plus some, like cost). If packets could carry their own metrics, routers could make better-informed choices.