TMTOWTDI
There's More Than One Way To Die... ummm, in Iraq.
Because for one thing, the "transmission range" is how their local ads are based. If you watched a local NYC station via Aereo from LA, those used car dealer ads wouldn't be very useful. Also, you'd be in the range of another local station on the same network, which pays the network for the right to be exclusive in their area. And they didn't even get into all the content black-out rules.
Not only that, but there are even fringe-area stations that rebroadcast on very weak transmitters located in the transmitter antenna farm (weak as in 75 watts, yes, as in a light bulb) for the sole purpose of being received by the local cable company(s), cha-ching! I have a pretty good antenna, but at 15 miles I have no chance to pick up one of those baby translator signals, as long as I refuse to support the cable-industrial complex. Or maybe eventually those stations will finally clue in to the new trend of declining cable subscribers, and add a few watts. (In comparison, I can pick up the local university's student-run low power TV station, ten miles farther away, quite easily with a good antenna.)
That's because this is based on a law specifically targeted at cable TV companies, created at the request of the TV networks. In the US, at least, local TV stations have a sort of limited monopoly over the right to broadcast their network's signal. Otherwise cable companies (and especially satellite TV companies!) might just pull down the network feed without inserts or news, or even a channel from the next big city over, leaving the local station blowing in the wind. Not that all or even many of the cable companies would do stuff like this, but there were probably enough problems starting to happen that the law was pushed through.
It's not entirely unlike the problems Tesla has been having with dealership laws. The local dealers want the laws that keep the manufacturers from competing with them, whether or not it would actually be a problem. The manufacturers are likely to just decide it's not worth the trouble when there's already a good dealer around. But if there's a bad dealer, too bad. And also with Uber/Lyft vs. cab companies... there are so many bad cabbies who have no motivation to get better because they already have the limited monopoly licenses that keep good competition out.
Netflix isn't "publicly transmitting" broadcast television, which is what Aereo did. Cable TV companies have to pay for the right to carry local TV channels that are otherwise freely available over-the-air to individuals with antennas.
With your bare hands?!?