And Ground infrastructure doesn’t exactly take a straight path either. Add 5-10% slack in the line for loops/splice trays/pole movement, and then going around artificial and natural barriers...
When AWS introduced Ground Station [0] I was unsure as to their motivation. Looking back on it, this kind of endeavour might have been the impetus for the service. In fact, given how much of the "Internet" depends on AWS, SpaceX using Ground Station might actually lower latency to your favorite website.
