No offense, but if the best thing you can think to do is play Starcraft your example should be "sitting in a basement being bitter" not "camping in the middle of no where". Blizzard doesn't cater to the niche "getting away from it all to do the exact same thing they do at home" crowd.
That aside, I appreciate the desire to return to a kinder simpler time, but really, I think the scenarios you've created only emphasize the sibling poster's point that broadband internet is so common that the exclusion of LAN play might be a moral sin, but from a practical perspective I, and most other people, never even noticed because we're too busy playing with our roommates and friends through B.net with the same gameplay quality we needed LANs for 10 years ago.
And now when a friend gets home late the integration between friends in the same room, those across the country, and random opponents is absolutely seamless. You may not like it, but it is an improvement.