> Over long enough of a distance, say NYC to London (or even farther), the overhead of going up first and then a "straight" line horizontally (it's not complete

> Over long enough of a distance, say NYC to London (or even farther), the overhead of going up first and then a "straight" line horizontally (it's not completely straight because it has relay between the satellites via LOS laser but each arc would be fairly long) and back down would be shorter than a line following the curvature. That is nonsense, the route is longer. You are confusing stuff, light travels faster in air compared to fiberoptic cable, so the latency will be lower, but distance is actually longer.