I'm not seeing anything to indicate that the passive transmitters are extra-sensitive. The whole wifi system is still running at full power and producing full-p

I'm not seeing anything to indicate that the passive transmitters are extra-sensitive. The whole wifi system is still running at full power and producing full-power signals; you've just shifted the power load from the remote transmitters (which are dependent on tiny batteries) to the central transmitter (which has a nice fat power main to draw from).