They're still a relatively small portion of the operational constellation, so while better than nothing, they aren't common enough to rely on for continuous service, thus the choice of Fiji for this temporary station.

While this will likely not be the case within another year, what matters in relation to this is what they can do right now, not in another year. This shouldn't be taken as criticism of Starlink, but rather an example of the possibilities as the fully featured constellation starts to become ready.

Eventually they wouldn't need to send over engineers to setup a base station, they'd just send over some dishes and adjust routing priorities.