Meadowlark, your key word is "may".
Apparently, it hasn't mattered to much in the last 200+ years. It "may" may or may not matter in the futre.
Given the fact that America's population has roughly tripled in size since WWII, and could triple again, in another 50-70 years, you could and probably are very well right. But today is today. We may all have giant windmills everywhere, and horses to for that matter, assuming Cecil and his "Peak Oil" cronies are right(I don't personally know, but don't really believe they are).
I'm certain that I do and will hate to see the urban and suburban sprawl, with carpetbaggers, Californians, northerners bringing in their high population regulations into the South and even Texas, which is a state that loves freedom, more than they have, but I'll be dead or dying by then, so I guess is won't be my problem.
What everyone must remember, that the principle of subdivision and growth is not new. It has been around since the original land grants.
As for the big picture, go ahead and take your local tax maps and look. Every single thing will be divided by a third in 50-70 years. There will be three times the subdivisions.
