> 150km sounds a long way until you realise that on open roads
> that's about a couple of hours drive.
With modern roads and cars, yes. Back when these places were being settled, the way people were rhapsodising about wagons and horses, it was a more like a couple of weeks. And that's what doesn't make sense. Surely the distance you want to be from your neighbour is such that you both have as much land as you can farm - and no more. Two hours walk, maybe, but that's closer to 15km than 150. Rural Britain has villages every 2-3 miles, because pre-car, that was the distance that made sense. So why, given similar means of transport, did the pioneering Americans want to isolate themselves?
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