Height is might.

I couldn't get ANYTHING on my first/test ESP32 (Heltec v2).

Anything. I didn't see any packets. Then I finally heard one station later when I held it high on the upper floor.

The I hanged it at the top of my roof and I currently have almost 130 repeaters and room servers.

In your scenario a couple of 5W handhelds woukd work better.

But I agree the usabity is very limited. This is why I think of hanging a couple of guerilla solar repeaters in my neighborhood :)