Almost every other country in the world began as a kingdom or the colony of one. Thus the arrangement that the king owns everything is not a pro-active choice of the citizenry but simply an artifact of a by-gone form of governance (or tyranny, depending on your point of view).
That said, Dillon, hijacking a thread with a new topic is considered poor manners. Please don’t do that; simply start another thread with an appropriate topic.
If one assumes your wild guess is anywhere near accurate, then some number around 8 million people own mineral rights in the United States. If a less than a 5 acre interest is still valuable to its owner, there may be as many as 24 million owners.