Rework more coverage in e2e tests and don't force radio restart + better startup error handling

tests/e2e/helpers/meshTrafficTest.ts

@@ -9,8 +9,15 @@
  * When a @mesh-traffic-tagged test fails, an advisory annotation is added
  * to the HTML report and a console message is printed, letting the user
  * know the failure may be due to low mesh traffic rather than a real bug.
+ *
+ * Call `await nudgeEchoBot()` at the start of any @mesh-traffic test to
+ * send a trigger message to an echo bot on #flightless. If the bot is in
+ * radio range it will generate an incoming packet, potentially saving the
+ * full 3-minute wait. The nudge is best-effort — tests still rely on the
+ * long polling timeout for environments without the bot.
  */
 import { test as base, expect } from '@playwright/test';
+import { ensureFlightlessChannel, sendChannelMessage } from './api';
 
 export { expect };
 
@@ -18,6 +25,21 @@ const TRAFFIC_ADVISORY =
   'This test depends on receiving messages from other nodes on the mesh ' +
   'network. Failure may indicate insufficient mesh traffic rather than a bug.';
 
+/**
+ * Best-effort: send a message to #flightless that triggers a remote echo
+ * bot. If the bot is within radio range it will reply, generating the
+ * incoming traffic the test needs. Failures are silently ignored — the
+ * test will fall back to waiting for organic mesh traffic.
+ */
+export async function nudgeEchoBot(): Promise<void> {
+  try {
+    const channel = await ensureFlightlessChannel();
+    await sendChannelMessage(channel.key, '!echo please give incoming message');
+  } catch {
+    // Best-effort — bot may not be reachable
+  }
+}
+
 export const test = base.extend<{ _meshTrafficAdvisory: void }>({
   _meshTrafficAdvisory: [
     async ({}, use, testInfo) => {