It's an oversimplification. The idea is that laser beams are extremely collimated, with divergences well under 1 degree in many cases, so over 200 meters the beam might only expand a tiny amount. But not to worry, the beam still spreads. Calculate the beam spot size of a laser, where the area increases as the square of the distance. Meanwhile, intensity is the inverse of the area. At sufficiently long distances, this will become apparent.
It seems to be a perennial point of confusion, but as far as I can make out from googling, it's not strictly true that lasers follow the inverse square law. Why is the parent being downvoted?
The point being made there is also incorrect. This is only true for divergence = 0 which doesn't exist.
Also, the point made that "if I go 10x further away then my received power won't be 100x less" is misleading since inverse square law is talking about intensity.
> Laser light travels as a parallel beam spreading very little, so the inverse square law does not apply.
https://www.reed.edu/ehs/laser-safety/1laser_basics.html
Is the above wrong?