While it's true that the stars are very distant, the only atmosphere that the light passes through is same atmosphere the satellites have to peer through (resulting in the same amount of distortion)
Hm, but with angles, distance matters to right? Bending light 10 degrees will mean a much bigger difference light-years away than a couple hundred miles away. That said, I could easily be missing something...
The light isn't being bent light-years away. It is being bent at the beginning of the atmosphere, resulting in the same degree of bending as the satellite has to deal with.
