It is interesting to think about. Assume for a minute that Starlink and Amazon's project and a handful of others put tens of thousands of satellites into 500-600 km LEO. Two crash, bits of those crash into others, and runaway Kessler syndrome ensues, resulting in space at those altitudes effectively closed off for 25 years. Assume the ISS at 400 km is no longer safe for human habitation, and it's too risky to try to punch larger payloads through to higher orbits. Human space exploration is effectively dead for 25 years. What happens?

On the scale of human history, that's a moment in time. Today, as we learn about the history of colonial Europe, there's lots of exploration, then the 30 Years War in 1618 slowed that down a lot for a while, then things resumed. In 2500 AD, astronauts will learn of the early history of 1900s first flights, and the 2020-2045 setback, and then 400 years of further development.

But in the short term, that's a full career for everyone who just entered the field. Space companies would publish 100 quarterly earnings statements with zero progress, just waiting for the window to open again. I just don't know that modern society has the ability to think long-term for an event like that.