This is significant because there are two key properties of gen2 Starlink satellites: Inter-satellite direct connection by laser link, and a lot more capacity.
Starlink is hitting scaling problems at 1M subscribers. It needs abou 100X more capacity to be a viable competitor to terrestrial networks. That requires the real gen2 satellites, which are about 5X heavier, and it requires 5-10X as many of them. That requires Starship, not just for capacity, but to meet the projected economy of lunch costs, too.
Getting operational experience with a "space backbone" is hugely valuable. But it is not really a viable business without meeting nearly all the gen2 projections for costs, number of satellites, network architecture, operations reliability, and capacity.
Starlink is hitting scaling problems at 1M subscribers. It needs abou 100X more capacity to be a viable competitor to terrestrial networks. That requires the real gen2 satellites, which are about 5X heavier, and it requires 5-10X as many of them. That requires Starship, not just for capacity, but to meet the projected economy of lunch costs, too.
Getting operational experience with a "space backbone" is hugely valuable. But it is not really a viable business without meeting nearly all the gen2 projections for costs, number of satellites, network architecture, operations reliability, and capacity.