I don't think the primary issues are technical (LoRA is packet-based, so there'd need to more than 10 antennas near each other to cause headaches), they're fina

I don't think the primary issues are technical (LoRA is packet-based, so there'd need to more than 10 antennas near each other to cause headaches), they're financial. Even if we grant the basic premise that it would be useful to have LoRA coverage all over the place, the operator of the network needs to actually have customers who will pay to use it, and pay enough to cover then paying the people hosting nodes. I think you're right that Helium's blockchain/crypto angle is more about avoiding oversight / taxes / liability than it is any sort of fundamental requirement of getting lots of people to sign up to join building out coverage.