One thing that is often overlooked is that BEV does not own the Nimiq satellites. They never have. Telesat owns them and leases the space exclusively to BEV. I would expect that BEVs costs are related to how much capacity they want to lease, not necessarily how many satellites are in the air. I also expect that in the case of soem of the failures, the cost for replacement or backups becomes Telesat's, not BEVs. (At least that is how I would structure the contract if I were BEV).
So while increased capacity (more slots) increases BEV overhead, replacement satellites for capacity that is already there shouldn't significantly increase their overhead.
So while increased capacity (more slots) increases BEV overhead, replacement satellites for capacity that is already there shouldn't significantly increase their overhead.