This is why we have a problem with the whole "The Map is Abstract" mindset. It ISN'T.
And yet... it is. And that's the problem.
This reminds me of how certain strategy or management games handle time. They often have two time-scales running in parallel: one for the calendar date which moves quickly, one for your units’ life cycle which moves slowly.
In Tropico 4, which is a city builder, you can zoom out and watch the dance of freighters docking every three months, or zoom in and follow the slow paced life of any individual citizen. Both of these points of view function as long as you’re not connecting them, because if you do, that’s when you realize your citizens eat only twice a year.
It feels like BG3 maps use the same basic concept of parallel scales for distances between “activity hubs” and “connective tissue”. The issue is that it’s hard to avoid noticing the places where those scales mesh. GM’s examples illustrate this well.
Worth noting that the map feels better on first playthrough than subsequent ones. There’s a psychological trick at play here: any journey feels longer if you’re discovering the path. I wonder if Larian are counting on this effect to hide the sliding distance scale.
