The satellite dishes do pick up a signal directly from a satellite.
But the dish has to be pointed at a satellite that is in a geostationary orbit, meaning, it stays in the same place relative to the Earth. Quite often though, these satellites aren’t directly above the dish, hence the compass.
Oh and if the dishes were pointed at a transmitting tower it would completely defeat the point of having satellite tv and we might has well go back to traditional broadcast.
Basically Jim, stop trying to find a conspiracy theory in everything and just be happy you can sit and watch tv at night without the aliens taking you away.