> Our telescopes actually need the (or at least an) atmosphere to function.

What about Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, JWST, etc? As of my understanding, the only reason we haven't built radio and and other long-wave telescopes in space is because of their impractical size preventing them from being deployed in orbit.

> There are some classes of observatories, which you cannot build in space but which are still affected by satellites to some degree.

Examples?

What? The atmosphere gets in the way. Ever heard of an (amateur/)astronomer talking about 'good seeing'? That's when the atmosphere is hindering you less than usual.

The limiting factor of passive optical telescopes on earth is the atmosphere.