The potential has not been overstated - more a case of there being very few extreme cases.
As you say, how many can actually prove it?
If you go back to the old baby monitors - same principles. There were demonstrated cases where someone with a similar systems several houses away could pick up the transmissions as they were not encrypted.and maybe higher power. Some reports suggested over 100m away was common.
The cable is very, very, low impedance - especially when compared to phone cables and how far to the very low level ADSL and VDSL signals travel? Several miles for ADSL.
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