This may be a silly question, but would you be able to create an interferometer style telescope array in space via a platform like starlink, ie small, inexpensive sats? Would that reduce/eliminate the need to launch large singular antennas?

That would probably be difficult at optical wavelengths. At radio wavelengths you might have a better shot, but we can build radio interferometric telescopes on Earth and since the atmosphere is relatively transparent at radio frequencies, you probably aren't going to get any advantage by trying to build one in Earth orbit.

Though not the same thing, you may be interested in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Interferometer_Space_Ant...