It does indeed have much shorter distances between stops than I've seen elsewhere in europe. The stops are however all optional - if noone flags the bus down and a passenger doesn't press a stop button, the bus won't stop. The buses are pretty frequent, but the amount of bus stops probably means that journey times are sacrificed for the convenience of quick and easy boarding

The average distance to the next public transport station in Switzerland is 360 metres. In cities it can drop below 200 metres. Yet the average delay/tardiness/late arrival is 16 seconds.

I don't believe this to be the case in Outer London, at least it's no different to smaller towns in the UK I've visited.

In Central and parts of Inner London it may be the case, however I tend to think buses are primarily designed as vehicles to get people to and from the tube/train network there.

It certainly depends where, some parts of Outer London can be "Hail and Ride" sections, where any part of the street essentially counts as a station