As Apple is making emergency satellite communication a consumer thing, I expect other companies will follow. So at least in unusual situations like this no-cell-service one, spending a cold night in the woods is hopefully less of a risk.
Apple’s satellite connection is still very experimental (you need to initiate it, you have to find the range and do the ritual, and it’s on one of the worst connected provider with limited coverage), and feels more like a checkbox for marketing than an actual mass ready feature. I’d put it in the same bin as lidar: it’s cool they got something working at all in such a constrained package. Hopefully it will become bet…
This is kind of what Apple has always done: bring a new (cool) thing to the consumer, even if it isn't as good as it sounds. But so far they seem to catch up and make it good after a couple of iterations.
And in this case it puts that checkbox in the consumer's mind, so other manufacturers will probably put some effort into matching or exceeding it.
If I were planning on being in places with no coverage and some risk, I would buy one of the relatively inexpensive Garmin satellite comm/safety devices. But most normal, non-wilderness-adventure people are not going to do that. Maybe this Apple feature will save a few people.