There is absolutely no need for encryption to get mesh working.
I think there is another agenda: There has always been political pressure to open the ham bands for commercial use. And the one thing that has kept the commercials out is being able to inspect their packets, eg the ban on encryption.
It seems that the push for encryption is a barely hidden campaign by commercial entities.
If anything, I'd guess it's closer to being the other way around. Encryption allows us to pull in about 40 years of research in packet radio and protocols that run on top of it; that plus the HAM bands is an internet that no government entity can control, or even locate geographically (without a ton of in-person effort).
I imagine that prospect is frightening to a lot of 3-letter agencies.
> There is absolutely no need for encryption to get mesh working.
The internet learned the hard way that encryption is very important, even for casual use. I'm not sending emails -- even, especially, to my friends -- that aren't encrypted.
I think there is another agenda: There has always been political pressure to open the ham bands for commercial use. And the one thing that has kept the commercials out is being able to inspect their packets, eg the ban on encryption.
It seems that the push for encryption is a barely hidden campaign by commercial entities.