[elcritch]

Starlink is manufacturing the satellites at scale. They’re likely to cost not much differently from large ground based 5G towers at some point. The antennas are “digital” so no expensive mechanical systems needed.

[fluoridation]

Even if I grant that, radio towers don't deorbit after a few years. I have no idea what you mean by antennas being digital.

[inemesitaffia]

Older sats (and OneWeb) use parabolic dishes. Some fixed, some steerable.

Apart from being SDR's, Starlink and its newer competition use phased array antennas. So they can provide extra capacity to denser areas.