None of this is a new idea. LORAN was developed during WWII and improved in the 1950s. It used ground-based HF transmitters, had long range and could provide geographic positions accurate to a mile or so, but no altitude information. This was perfectly adequate for the task it was designed for, which was long-range air and ship navigation on the open ocean. It's been largely abandoned in favor of the much more precise GPS and similar satellite-based systems.
Why lie about GPS being satellite-based if people were already comfortable with a land-based system? Doing so means you not only have the problem of maintaining land-based transmitters all over the world, but keeping everyone involved hushed up - including designers, installers, technicians, and operators, not to mention the added expense for hardware and hush money for all the people involved with faked "launches". All this with no leaks. Ever. The accuracy of the system speaks for itself and is the reason people like and use it; whether it's land-based or satellite-based is irrelevant, so what would be the point of saying it's satellite based if it's not? This just doesn't make any sense.
[edit] fix typo.