The reason I quote Pratt, is the same as for Joseph Smith, they know more about how the Book of Mormon fit into the 19th century than you. It would be like trying to increase the size of the ark because it’s silly to think all the animals could fit on such a small ship. Kerry’s discussion of the eight Jaredite barges show how silly the Book of Mormon is when compared with reality. So trying to find a limited geography that makes sense is misguided to say the least. That’s why I brought up the Idealist Fallacy, or the assumption that humans are always rational. It’s irrational for Joseph Smith to have believed the Nephites could travel such great distances or to have populated such a great expanse of territory, therefore he didn’t. Just about everything in the Book of Mormon is irrational, especially to us who have more education and have studied it longer than it took for him to write it.
“And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east.” Helaman 3:8
Helaman 3:8 is not written from the perspective of the land southward. It’s migration into the land northward that prompts discussion of the four seas. They travel “an exceeding great distance” into the land northward where the timber is sparse due to deforestation by the Jaredites. Early Mormons identified this land as Mexico and the Great Plaines. Joseph Smith contemporaries believe the Plaines were created by the Mound Builders. So, in this passage, these are the major seas, not local seas. It is the only mention of a “sea north.” I don’t see this feature in your model.
The “narrow pass” is a feature of the “small neck.” While the neck has length, the pass is measured by width, a journey of a day and a half from sea to sea. The pass is right where the neck fits onto the land southward.
“And it came to pass that they did not head them until they had come to the borders of the land Desolation; and there they did head them, by the narrow pass which led by the sea into the land northward, yea, by the sea, on the west and on the east.” Alma 50:34
Note here that the point where the neck attaches to the land southward it has seas on the east and west. You seem to think that the long bay disqualifies Panama, but it doesn’t. Note this passage doesn’t name these seas, although it is merely a bay of the general sea east. Note also that Alma 22:32 describes the line Desolation and Bountiful as running from “the east to the west sea.” Again, no specific mention of the “east sea,” although it implies the line touches water on both ends. Even if the passage is read to imply “east sea,” it would not disqualify Panama.
Then there is what to do with the city of TEANCUM that is north of the narrow neck and encroaching into Desolation! How do you fit that into the Panama narrow neck that is suppose to be only 1 ½ days long leading into the continent proper? The Panama neck scenario is an impossible scene when trying to make it work with the text and the layout of how Smith interwove the cities which you seem to think are in South America. Impossible. Can't be done.
What do you mean how do I fit Teanchum into the area north of the narrow pass? There isn’t enough information to be dogmatic about the placement of any city. Certainly, it can’t be used to criticize any geography theory. It’s just an arbitrary game that makes some theories look more precise than what is possible. Nevertheless, your Teancum is not by the seashore. Your land northward has no east sea.
I don’t know what you think you are accomplishing with the list of cities. Placing names of cities arbitrarily on a map proves nothing.