I saw your tags wondering whether that's intentional or not on part of the devs and honestly, if you think about the relationship the Glen and Refuge have with one another it leads me to believe IT IS INTENTIONAL, or is an accidental sign of something that IS intentional.
The Glen has flooded ruins people had to flee from, and the current village has a lot of mattresses (no bed frames) and provisional looking houses. It's not that good of a place to live in for sure.
In fact you have people moving into the Refuge despite the square dangers, with books written to help them adapt, but the only "Refuge" citizen to regularly visit both areas is the Shepard.
However it's also likely where most of the food in the world is produced. Whereas plants in the Refuge are harder to raise and more so seen as a sign of nostalgia for nature that can't thrive without the sun.
The people in the Glen work with low technology and don't reliably have access to electricity... And yet there is a whole research facility down south, full of powered robots doing tests on the environment and watching over the trees that are illegal to cut down because they're such relevant sources of green phosphor.
Magpie is homeless, and trades without using money, I would assume that the Glen works on different economy to the Refuge, but since Niko never has to pay for anything we can't know for sure.
When it comes to Maize, despite her being first and foremost a spirit of the Glen, there are robots reporting to the Refuge about her health, and the garden to regrow her is in that area which we already stated isn't as suited for plant life.
Look just read the Alula part in the Pancake episode, it's not canon plot wise, but I'd guess the worldbuilding choices stay canon compliant.
If you want a refresher though, she makes a toast with salmon and yogurt iirc. At some point Ling mentions the ingredients come from shipments from the Glen, however, Alula who resides there somehow never gets to use those ingredients herself. Which area's food access is being prioritized here?
Her section also compares the convenience Ling has access to in his kitchen compared to the way Alula and Calamus would make the same food.
So basically the Glen seems to provide many services to the Refuge and they're key to survival, but they're not prioritized, there are barriers for them to move freely, and the Refuge seems to take more control for important aspects of the area. This affects access to food, technology, economy, and overall quality of life they have access to.
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