So I have played a few games with my family now and when I look up gameplay I see that many people tend to go far from the center and/or aren't close to an opponent. Why is this?

My few games with my family have been everyone crowd themselves in the center and want to be next to each other for power and the trading house discount. Almost all my plays with 4 and 5 players no one touches the east and west side of the board.

I also notice people purposefully don't try to go for longest road/most structures.

I have the big box and have only played with base factions, rules, and scoring with variable starting VP and turn order. But have played on all 4 different maps.

What am I doing wrong or missing?