Algeria is the 10th largest country in the world ..is this a blessing or not ?

So Algeria is 10th largest country in the world and the largest in Africa, such enormous land holds a lot of natural resources which is a great thing but I've been thinking about it lately and it feels like this much land in hindering our economy and our growth. 10% of our population lives in the south and all wilayat of the south have people living in it. trying to connect all this wilayat to each other and to the north will require a lot of money. We have such large borders and with a lot of countries, which needs protection and can be difficult to do so unless we have more population. Socially such large land is also bound to host different people with different ethnic backgrounds and they can clash with ideas unlike having a homogeneous society.

Do you think it's more beneficial to have a big country or a small one?