Those aren't necessarily baronies, just fortified settlements.

Not every barony is fortified and not every fortified settlement is a barony.

The only way to become a Baron/Baroness in game is to be put under contract by the Duchy to perform those duties. Whether or not you select a defensive settlement during DSS is immaterial to the position. The Duke could pick a count to be a Baron if they wanted.

Personally, I think it's to allow customisation by players rather than forcing us to conform to certain roles, and allow us to place the defences we want rather than the ones the algorithm thinks is best.

Could be that I'm an optimist though.

Theyre are no barons, just settlements focused on defense as of right now.

Barons are funded by the Duke, if 50% of settlements was a Barony, you could imagine the kinds of taxes your Duke would charge. This is a game that will contain economic elements and every soldier needs specific people to support their playstyle. Those soldiers need food, clothes, arms, armor, transportation methods, training, ect. All of that will require funds or assets and those funds and assets must come from somewhere.

If we were to use real life as an equivalency, we have 20x too many baronies and 4x too many soldiers in CoE. This may be an acceptable compromise.

A baron is just a mayor with a contract with the Duke. They can have a non-military settlement, but still have security duties. They can have a non-military settlement they convert, or their duke converts, to a military settlement during Exposition. Further, military settlements can be selected by mayors without a ducal contract -- perhaps because they are paranoid; perhaps because they want to be a raubritter.

The map has nothing whatever to do with the prevalence or scarcity of barons.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Although, the model of the Duke funding or subsidizing the military forces of the Barons is a bit ridiculous. We'll see if it actually plays out that way in practice.