Same here. I wouldn't be surprised if there are already many projects aiming into that direction.
F.x.: https://prism-break.org/en/all/#mesh-networks, there's IRC, XMPP, ...
But those projects mostly seem to try to establish alternative internets / protocols mostly based on the conventional internet.
The active enforcement of low-bandwidth-use would in my opinion be the core concept. As soon as media can be transferred it's going down hill in many ways. I think usenet died this way. c/p, content sharing, viruses, spam, ... all that crap
