If the node was close enough to be in view of earth (and earth wasn't a pinprick in the FS1 end cutscene, it was nearby) Then the GTVA wouldn't need Neptune. They wouldn't need Jupiter. Their supply chain would be non-existent because they could just keep all the supplies in delta serpentis and pop through the gate when they needed repairs.
Seriously, the GTVA fleet could just come herp derping through the gate en masse, it wouldnt matter how many destroyers they could support in system, because their objective is to close to the gate to require sustained logistic presence in the system.
What you say doesn't make any sense.
How would the situation be different from what it is in WiH ?
Wherever the node is in the system, you're still one subspace jump away from Luna, Earth, Neptune or whatever place in Sol you can think of. The physical proximity doesn't matter ****.
Do you think they invaded Neptune first for proximity reasons ? They did that only because it was lightly defended and a potential logistical heaven. If that had been true for Mercury, they would have done the exact same thing.
Distance does make a difference if not in time traveled then at least in ability TO travel. The impression I get from the actions of ships in canon is that one jump can't carry you to ANYWHERE in the system, only a set distance. As such, ships often have to jump in at pretty bad locations for their missions. Examples of this would include:
The Taurus attacking the Plato. Seriously, I know the shivans kicked its **** in, but if they hadn't, that was NOT an effective attack range, not even close. That was WAYYYYYYY off. And they had accurate coordinates for the Plato, a wing of Anubises had just jumped in a click out, why did the taurus have to be so fa away?
The Plato itself was obviously equipped with a jumpdrive, so why did it jump in so damn far away from the node?
The Taranis in its attempted escape from Ikeya
The rosetta and their omega transports
The freighters attempting to escape deneb in fs2
In all of these cases, if the jump drives didnt have a limit on how far they could take he ships in a single jump why would these ships have exited subspace so far from their objectives?
Another case, the convoy you escort in FS2 to supply the colossus.. Why? If you are ALWAYS one jump from your target then why wouldn't they just wait for the colossus to arrive, hit their drives and jump in right at the colossus instead of risking attack?
Perhaps the most damning of all, the Bastion chasing the Lucifer. I mean seriously, if jump drives could take you ANYWHERE in the system in one jump why the hell would the Bastion jump in 22 clicks from the Sol node? How would Shima explain that to command. "yeah so heads up command, I know I'm supposed to save earth and everything, but i jumped in 22 clicks out and now i my drives are down. Sorry, the Lucy is getting away!!!"
There certainly aren't 'distortion fields' around the nodes, or at least not ones that large, based on the Prophecy jumping in right next to the sol nod, the Carthage at the Knossos, etc. So while that confirms the nodes don't have 'deadzones' around them, that would imply that either the GTVA/GTA/PVN are criminally retarded, or you can only go so far on one drive charge. By your logic, Convoys should NEVER need escort. They should jump into a system, sit at the node with friendly forces until their drives recharge and then happily be on their way to the next node through subspace all the way.
I have poured way to many hours into escort missions that pissed me off, ive gotta believe that they were actually necessary and command wasn't just jerking me around and choosing not to use subspace
Additionally, since we're arguing in the BPverse, look at the Carthage's backup drive. It is said that its only strong enough to take them so far, and they end up getting caught at Saturn. Now unless the backup drive is COMPLETELY different in every way from all other drives (which I suppose is possible but I think incredibly unlikely), that implies that its just a scaled down version of a normal drive, made for short distance jumps. But that also implies that all drives have a max distance limit, as i mentioned above