Italy and the Netherlands don’t qualify against Haiti and Canada; we are in a group specifically designed for at least the US and Mexico to get to every World Cup - and still fell short.
(That is why CONCACAF teams don’t fare well; they should be qualifying with the South American group, which would still have less teams than the European, African, or Asian groups.)
Now THERE you’ve hit on it.
There is no reason for CONCACAF and COMNEBOL not to merge.
They had the Gold Cup Centenio a few years ago to coincide with the Euro tournament, that combined the teams from North and South America, and it was great! You had Euro games in the daytime and Gold Cup at night. They need to make this permanent, and just hold it here in the US.