I think it's a nice PoC but i do not expect to ever be able to chat with any of my neighbors, but it would be great if we could abstract the mesh network and turn it into an open source lib that people could integrate into their apps with so much ease that it would be wasteful to not use it. That way you can maybe build pretty decent mesh networks that specifically in dense areas could stretch to loads of people.

I understand the appeal is very small because internet so far has proven to be too resilient to justify any of this. I have often thought about mesh networking with my friends over wifi when i was younger but getting tlos was mostly an jssue and well, we could already communicate over the regular lines that were in place which are in most cases actually faster as well.

I think in most cases where this would be useful it will always be too late because you would need an internet connection to obtain an app that would integrate you on a mesh network and no normie will ever install it until that moment arrives.