NYC has 470 stations, by far the most. Who cares about long-distance stops with nothing in between. NYC has train stations in every single neighborhood in the city.
It's more complicated than that, because some stations with multiple lines get counted multiple times for that. Though even if NYC does have 20 more stations than Shanghai, it's a bit of a stretch to call that "by far". When, again, other cities have twice the tunnel length and nearly twice the ridership.
There are neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn where the closest subway station can be miles away, and there is an entire borough in NYC that has no general subway access at all, so not buying that one either.
