Telehubs

I do know that in former times residents could only teleport to telehubs, not across the map. With this restriction gone one could assume that nobody needs them anymore.

At the same time, there is a huge "Linden telehub" and an invisible version located in the library section of the inventory. Also, you find telehubs highlighted with a special symbol in the map ... and you find telebubs in many regions.

So ... is this just a piece of history? Is there any kind of functionality these things still provide?

If you run a private island, you can set it up so that teleporting works according to the old telehub rules.

The buildings themselves are just pretty structures. The functionality could be built into a plywood cube using the estate controls. I'm not sure why the mainland map would be displaying teh telehub icons though.