Somewhat fortunate that the satellites were roughly 500 miles up. Shuttles and the space station are at about half that. So they are at somewhat higher risk as the pieces spiral down and deorbit. Fortunately space is really big so odds remain low of any interaction.

The GPS, main communications and military surveillance satellites are, for the most part, much higher and gravity says the pieces will pretty much all go lower, not higher. So they are at far less risk. So while there are likely to be repercussions this unfortunate event isn't reason for hair-on-fire alarmism.

Even the loss of all middle orbit satellites, something that simply doesn't seem likely, would be far less an issue than it was a decade ago. Communications have shifted quite a bit in the last decade away from satellites to optical fiber cables where the bandwidth is wider, the disruptions are fewer (in part because we over invested in fiber in the 90s and there are now many redundant lines), and the maintenance and upkeep are cheaper.

On the other hand technology, and the fact that it sometimes fails, is easy to take for granted. It is easy for people to get used to GPS for wilderness, marine, even automotive, navigation and assume it will always be there.

The GPS system is great but it is not a replacement for knowing how to navigate with compass, maps, sextant, time-rate calculations and dead reckoning. IMHO learning to navigate without GPS gives a person a better, far more useful and practical, intuitive feel for the intricacies of real-world navigation. Far better than just reading a GPS screen and plotting it on a map.