It's not direct packets. You ssh into a box in, say, UAE, then Cuba, then Canada, then USA. You're just uploading and running scripts, so latency doesn't matter.
Yes, I know how the Internet works now. It doesn't have to keep working that way, and if attacks get really bad the result will not be that we just live with them. The Internet will be modified to reduce the threat to a tolerable level. There's already been some pretty serious work put into what this will look like, if/when it happens.
So all that will change is you use a wireless link (starlink?) to SSH into a box in another country that connects to a box to a box to a box. It will not change a lot, infact as starlink like satellites become common place you can use them as jump boxes....