Routers in real environments versus Cisco studies

Hey /r/networking,

So I have a question I've been pondering, hoping that you guys with a lot more experience than me can provide some insight.

When we study CCNA and CCNP, we learn about topologies and networks with lots of routers in them. We setup routing protocols (OSPF, EIGRP, etc) between them all and learn how to get routes where they need to go.

Then thinking about actual enterprise or even small business networks, are there really that many routers involved? Does one physical location really have more than a couple of routers all meshed and running routing protocols between them?

I'm sure you're likely to have layer 3 switches for things like inter-VLAN routing and whatnot with the campus network design you get taught about, but do the topologies we see in labs and studies really look the same in the real world?

Are the sheer number of routers we see in these examples supposed to represent sites which are physically located apart from each other? In other words, running routing protocols over some kind of WAN or private leased connection across multiple sites?

Here's an example picture to demonstrate what I mean

http://www.firewall.cx/images/stories/ospf-operation-basic-advanced-concepts-ospf-areas-roles-theory-overview1.png Is this supposed to represent one location? I can't think of why you would need so many routers (and thus so many subnets) in the one place. I'm sure I'm missing something.

Or is this just used for the sake of examples - to teach how these protocols work in a configuration that probably won't be replicated in the real world?