What's kind of crazy about the perceived distance thing is that timing of being in this planet now also plays a factor. 100 million years ago a 1ish% relative size larger might have made for far fewer annular eclipses. Or more, I can't find any info on that, but I expect fewer annular and more total eclipses. Of the 224 eclipses this century, 72 are annular and 68 total.

But it's all part of this scifi bonkers planet. Our star makes us have crazy light rivers in the sky at the poles because molten iron inside the planet is spinning faster than the outside of the planet to make giant magnetic currents. The crust isn't even solid, it's a slow moving chunky ice flow of silicates, like some busted-ass pie pulled straight from the oven. Huge deposits of dead trees and other early life got buried and remained intact as seams or seas of hydrocarbons, just hanging out. In some places the life that evolved here can die and get buried and some of the remains turned into stone versions of itself. We can bounce radio waves of the inside of the atmosphere and the magnetic currents for our convenience.

Sorry, but it always sends me down a rabbit hole of how weird this place is and we just get used to it.