There's a definite population cutoff here. Many cities in Alaska are huge. New York City is just a smidgeon over 300 mi², like 302. Counting all of the bays and Atlantic Ocean around NYC doesn't really give a sense of the urban city itself, which is entirely on land. Corpus Christi is tripled here by adding 300+ mi² of empty Gulf of Mexico water; Virginia Beach is doubled.
It doesn't compare inland cities to coastal cities fairly.