Conversely, a lot of people in smaller, denser countries suffer from anti-car-brain, and don't appreciate the difficulty implementing comprehensive public infrastructure on an America scale.

And those difficulties are imaginary. If I wanted a high speed public rail line throughout Florida, a dense, narrow, flat state that's the size of a small country. Where is the scale challenge?

Europe and America are about the same size. Why aren't you concerned about European scale? Why does it matter how your brain pictures administrative boundaries?