I didn’t say small islands are unimportant, just better to remove islands if there is no reasons to fight for them like new hebrides and fiji which surrounded by only one sea zone. One of them is redundant but might be reasons to fight for one of them only.
In a board game every piece of territory (even if worthless) and sea zones have a reason to be exist hence distortion becomes handy because having too much territory not always impact positively. For example if it was a WWII map, these extra sea zones between Britain and N.Africa would cripple torch option.
Its impossible to justify these values other than balance purpose. Western Germany has always been, more populated, industrialized and richer even if we assume its value decreased due to Allies bombing in WWII Western Germany was also richer in terms of steel and coal production.
Lybia wasn’t the leading nation in crude oil production either. They were USA, Soviet Union, Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia the letter three deserve more value also.