My economist brother-in-law taught banking to undergrads for six years while working on his thesis. He once remarked to me that the US is "vastly" overbanked. He said that consolidation wouldn't hurt anyone. European countries have a few dozen banks, and its enough for competition.
Also, I don't think that branch closures means much of anything economically, although it might be an inconvenience for customers who aren't comfortable depositing checks via their mobile app. Cash can be obtained via ATMs. Mortgage loans can be handled by specialty offices which are more sparsely located.
Branch closures happen because there is almost no foot traffic at the physical locations. It is expensive to handle a face to face transaction these days.
15 years ago, I would make deposits at the local branch at least two times as week. I knew the manager well. I could name most of the tellers.
I went into the branch for the first time in months the other day. The place was a ghost town.
Everything is online now. Closing branches is financially a good decision. As long as your support systems online are adequate, there isn’t anything that cannot be done online or on the phone.