Loss goes up quadratically with distance, not exponentially. The graphs showing the quadratic dependence of loss vs. frequency assume a half-wave antenna, mean

Loss goes up quadratically with distance, not exponentially. The graphs showing the quadratic dependence of loss vs. frequency assume a half-wave antenna, meaning the antenna size decreases inversely to wavelength, so most of the effect is from having a smaller antenna. In any case, path loss doesn't usually limit network capacity. Densely deployed systems are limited by interference, and the interference experiences the same path loss as the signal.