In this paper, we link the throughput gains, due to transceiver adaptation, in a point-to-point transmission link to the expected gains in a mesh network. We calculate the maximum network throughput for a given topology as we vary the length scale. We show that the expected gain in the network throughput due to transceiver adaptation is equivalent to the gain in a point-to-point link with a length equal to the mean length of the optical paths across the minimum network cut.We also consider upper and lower bounds on the variation of the gain in the network throughput due to transceiver adaptation, where integer-constrained channel bandwidth assignment and quantized adaptations are considered. This bounds the variability of results that can be expected and indicates why some networks can give apparently optimistic or pessimistic results. We confirm the results of previous authors that show finer quantization steps in the adaptive control lead to an increase in the throughput since the mean loss of throughput per transceiver is reduced. Finally, we consider the likely network advantage of digital nonlinear mitigation and show that a significant tradeoff occurs between the increase in the signal-to-noise ratio for larger mitigation bandwidths and the loss of throughput when routing fewer large-bandwidth superchannels.