There were two parts to that Ukraine blacking out story. First was that they were charging for starlink after providing free initial access (terminals were bought by someone else). To be fair, this was clearly stated at the beginning, is normal capitalism, and the only reason the change was painful was because the service was so useful. This should have been a simple case of starlink's CEO saying someone has to pick up the tab but they'd offer it at cost, and it should have been a PR win.

The second was that starlink is blacked out in any areas under russian control, or being contested by Russia. This included the front lines for Ukraine which was a point of complaint. This is something outside starlink's control, embargoes against tech support of Russia are clear. You can bet the US government/military is telling starlink exactly when and where to enable it's service. For example, Starlink is active in Iran precisely to support US interests thanks to special exception even though this is illegal due to the overall sanctions in place.

All of this could have been handled by a competent PR department, but it's not something Elons companies have, deliberately so.

My assumptions are either

The public's idea of starlinks's involvement is Ukraine is not accurate (could be many reasons why)

My friends division has some very specific niche benefits from starlink that don't apply to Ukraine.

This is why the gov announced plans to build their own. Elon tried to price gouge when the service was critical and the military doesn't like that. They pay an extended helping hand back in contracts down the line. That is how they do things.