Starlink doesn't get enough credit for their phased arrays terminals, I think. They've managed to make a performant antenna for 10 to 100 time less cost than the competition. Without that, the whole system wouldn't be such a success. This article goes into some details. It's the first truly mass produced RF phased array, and the fact that they've shown it's possible will have some big impacts on certain fields (SATCOM obviously, mobile networks, etc).
Maybe it's the first use of phased arrays for consumer satellite data terminals, but I believe phased arrays were mass-produced (and still are) for radar chips -- e.g. in automotive. Ran across this fascinating article on the history:
Good point. To my knowledge most of these radars are MIMO, which are more capable than phased arrays but it's a different architecture. Also these radar systems usually have on the order of 10 antenna elements (although this number is increasing), whereas the starlink terminal has something like 1000 antenna elements, if I remember correctly.
https://lilibots.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-is-starlink-termin...