Actually the time to the USA over starlink is shorter than for the HFC link. Lower latency for the most part and with the laser comms + more satellites coming in it should get lower. And much faster to the EU.
Relay nodes are now going to only be used to establish the connection, after that there is no need of the relay node and comms will be as fast as port-forward until the connection drops.
Shunning is not based on latency but non-communications and failing storage checks. Also shunning is permanent and short time shunning is not a thing.
And I have to come back to doing tests as I have other tasks that i need to get done, like finish off the bookshelves/display cabinet. Been doing it part time and modding things, waiting to get needed parts, and so on has made the living room a war zone and enough is enough, so they are running with 3 SBC using port forward and one using home-network. All earning something and with the network so large now its rather random even on the Big machine over the HFC link.
With that randomness and slowness of earning for any node now, any testing will have to take some time and ensure the machines are kept running.