I think this is the absolute truth... Almost everyone who has led a large alliance should agree. Frankly, when you have 600+ nations and 2+ years of history to protect and serve, you make decisions slightly different than you do for an alliance of 15 dudes who came together last week. Sad but inevitable I think.
While much shorter than others, many micro alliances do have histories and bonds between members far beyond than "some dudes." For example, my first alliance the Republic of Elite Colonies probably had 4-7 members in it for a prolonged period of time. We eventually did have inside jokes and did reminiscence about the hectic summer (it was actually when most members joined). I mad decisions for it based on their security and to protect our integrity. While I don't know how other micro alliance leader lead, I would expect they do the same (its pretty clear most don't though).
There is also a different kind of alliance bond between the government of a large alliance to its members and the many types of a micro alliance. Some MAs just have a leader who does everything and a bunch of noobs. REC was like that in a way. However, we were all noobs when we started and only recruited noobs. We had about 3 members join who had previous experience. Its a much different relationship when you all learn together (with the leader having learned faster or had experience) and teaching each other. Most of the active members back in REC were actually pretty good at nation management but stayed small due to my faults at not acquiring enough tech deals.