Let me explain my reasoning.

In California, we too have many counties, but they seem appropriate to our large population and are not squished together, like the Southeast or Midwest (the Northeast is sorta fine). Half of Texan counties are literally square shapes. Ditto Iowa. In the west, there seems to be economic/cultural/geographic consideration, even if it is in fairly broad strokes.

Counties outside the west seem very balkanized, but I don’t see the method to the madness, so to speak. For example, what makes Fisher County TX and Scurry County TX so different that they need to be separated into two different counties? Same question their neighboring counties?

Here, counties tend to reflect some cultural/economic differences between their neighbors (or maybe they preceded it). For example, someone from Alameda and San Francisco counties can sometimes have different experiences, beliefs, tastes and upbringings despite being across the Bay from each other. Similar for Los Angeles and Orange counties.

I’m not hating on small counties here. I understand cases of consolidated City-counties like San Francisco or Virginian Cities. But why is it that once you leave the West or New England, counties become so excessively numerous, even for states without comparatively large populations? (looking at you Iowa and Kentucky)