This seems like a very under-researched statement. Bezos and Musk clearly see huge profits to be made flying satellites for use on earth. Space is sexy - and that's why its used as the marketing gimmick by these companies. For an article so critical of them its odd they took the promotional material of these companies at face value.
All three of them are doing related but distinctly different things, so I think the competitiveness is mainly a gag. If the end result proves to be beneficial in the general sense, I'm happy to let them at it.
Seems like that's one of the first uses a non-trivial demographic of users go for.
You are right that it's sexy, though. I figure something deeper is driving them. Us. Probably the same basic mystical awe I get watching old film of Apollo missions. Some mix of ego and adventure and eccentric waste. The PR and marketing is just the cherry on top, surely.
The not-up-to-date person reading this would truly think that the billions of dollars funding this by Musk are like a side project done simply because of his dreams of terraforming Mars. Maybe Musk is serious about that - but if described with starlink you realize its much less of a "billionaire hobby obsession" and more of a "potentially profitable business (with bragging rights too)"