A map projection that preserves area would be better, otherwise there's an excessive number of cities in the far northern hemisphere, and a lack of detail in the tropics.
I think this just teaches you the issue with discretization.
Vadsø, Hammerfest, Trondheim, Bergen and Longyearbyen.
But Vadsø, Hammerfest and Longyearbyen are tiny - population 2-12 thousand.
Mercator's ubiquity isn't due to people who "aren't into maps" but rather because its strengths are really powerful in many use cases. Imagine the confusing situation if, in your favorite Maps app, North weren't always directly up, intersections met at wrong angles, and square buildings didn't always look square.