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>Imagine pouring all federal resources into one cramped state.

Bit silly to compare the size of countries but not scaling resources correspondingly.

Switzerland and the US have almost identical government expenditure per capita. Maryland still doesn't have 25 Gbps home internet.

That's kind of their point. A lot of those government expenditures go to things that citizens of Maryland may not want or benefit from.

More federal spending goes to Maryland per capita than the US average per capita.

This isn't an an issue of people in Maryland not getting money -- they get robust federal spending and have a robust state budget of their own. This is simply: Americans getting what they vote for, which is notoriously not public infrastructure.

Sweden managed to build out fiber almost everywhere. Size of California, quite urban, but you'll still have fiber in the rural parts or even your cabin in the woods.

Australia was able to do the same. It had the same US crony capitalism where private companies didnt approve the national broadband fibre network so had to use ADSL for 10 more years but finally a different govt party implemented the fibre network.