That's one possibility. I can think of a few cases where I'd rather toss in a $5 board with a 50/50 chance of getting it/data back, rather than a more expensive

That's one possibility. I can think of a few cases where I'd rather toss in a $5 board with a 50/50 chance of getting it/data back, rather than a more expensive circuit or something that includes a GPS device and could still get lost. Also, there are other ways to communicate that can potentially use a lot less power than Ethernet or WiFi :)