Logically it's a bent pipe from the POV of an individual terminal, right now, even if they're doing layer-2-like MAC/PHY stuff on the satellite. But I agree with you they are clearly not just dumb repeaters the same way that a transponder on a geostationary satellite is. The make-before-break and handoff between satellites for single antenna phased array terminal that can talk to 2 satellites at once requires more intelligence than that.
The satellites certainly are not full featured routers such as the capability you'd find in a modern 1U height ISP carrier router with enough CPU/RAM/FIB/RIB for full BGP tables.
