the distance between the western and eastern tip of Greenland (which is one time zone) appears to be the same width as the continental US, but it's far, far smaller.
I don't think that's confusing anyone. Greenland appears to span 5 (hour-wide) timezones, because it does, and NY and LA are almost as far apart and span four (almost 5). This is exactly what you'd want to see in a map about the widths of timezones.
We're talking about timezones. The whole article is about timezones. The map has no purpose except to show timezones. I cannot emphasize enough the point that timezones are the relevant unit of measurement in this article.
I think the point is that although it's only 1000km, the difference when expressed as a proportion of one day is the same. So noon in LA corresponds to late afternoon in NY, noon on Greenland's west coast corresponds to late afternoon on Greenland's east coast.
Greenland's span of longitude in degrees is greater than that of the continental US. That is what this map projection is displaying. Even though Greenland's distance is smaller, it's more longitude and time zones because the meridians are very closely packed near the pole.
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