It already does that. That's how Starlink works over the ocean.

does that mean the authorities can’t locate someone transmitting or receiving to/from starlink? in many places the consequences of detection could be dire…

No. The links between the satellites are lasers, but the user traffic still goes up and down over radio.

You still need the Starlink coverage to be enabled on system level, and the local government to care enough to track down Starlink users at the same time. I can't imagine that there are many countries that meet both criteria.

i believe countries with major firewalls and vpn blocking policies would track down and make examples of a set of users periodically if only to deter others.

Oh, cool. I haven't kept up to date. That's amazing.