Some architectural and city planning with relation to climate seems counterintuitive to me. Can someone explain?

I would assume living in more pleasant warm climates would incentive less dense planning since walking/travel between locations would be less unpleasant and also energy consumption for heating wouldn't be as in high demand. Meanwhile cities in colder climates would incentives dense planning that allowed for people to get what they needed without having to leave a building, or not having to walk far. Also housing more in less buildings could conserve heating energy.

Yet here is a picture of Rio Di Janeiro

And here is Nuuk Greenland

In fact looking at a lot of extreme north communities, it seems they prefer single family housing that's fairly spread out, this is the case in Scandinavia, Alaska, Greenland and Russia. Idk, just seems weird to me.