I was thinking one band for most of it around the globe but to taper wider at the best climates for farming, leisure, surfing, etc., with other cool islands that would spell out my name or make a cool design to almost prove the existence of God /you by having the all the islands shaped like cats.

In this scenario you are a designer (watch maker) God who then turns into a person that has to live in the world they design

Straight Pangea. No oceans would mean everybody meets each other early on. All humans quickly build a world wide communication network, even if only by word of mouth at first. Sure, there's will be some looking and conquering, but I think that my this point in time, we'd be a hell of a lot closer to unity.

On a functional basis I expect some sort of belt around the equatorial region or perhaps a bit outside of it, whatever makes for the most fertile and productive land.

It'd be particularly full but would probably also eliminate a lot of global conflict since one chunk of clay would be about the same as a other, far less reason to fight over territory.

Wouldn't you sacrifice a lot of biodiversity though by going too hard on the productive land? I would definitely put most of the land in that region but think we'd miss out on cool stuff if we put too much there

Pangea was just a big glob and really inefficient.

You'd want a band around the equator, to maximize sea access to facilitate travel, and prevent a few cultures from isolating other.

Pangea is constant war or a single authoritarian government to keep everyone in line.

A band would lead to coalitions, any one empire just couldn't defend it's whole shoreline and would over extend and collapse and fracture.

Perhaps, I suppose one could also say that the entire planet is land though, just that some of it happens to be underwater. If we need to maintain a constant amount of sea water we could make the planet donut shaped, one large column of water running through the middle hole which would then allow more land to be above sea level, allowing for more habitable space and diversity?

Homer Simpson as a god, mmm donut planet...

I like band idea, but I’d make it a big band of Voronoy pattern shaped islands, with just enough water in between for civilisations to ensure communication, but make invading each other a pain in the ass. Would probably also make some water regions shallow to act like some sort of water speed bump and limit seafaring capacity and force humans to eventually be building big ass bridges.

Would probably also make some outlier islands with difficult inhospitable terrain or climate to act as nature’s reserves.

The tricky thing with continents is how the ocean currents affect the weather. For example the current flowing north from the equator past the UK keeps them relatively temperate while they have the same latitude as Canada.

The cycle of nutrients in the ocean is also temperature dependent. The cold water on the sea bottom concentrates the nutrients from decaying matter. Currents are needed to spread these nutrients. If cold water was trapped in circumpolar currents, warm waters could become depleted and unable to sustain much sea life.

Figure out some configuration that would minimize the impact of the meteor that took out the dinosaurs. Maybe mammals won't thrive and we won't have whatever the fuck this is.

Definitely correct. Valheim without the need to go to extremes to find others.

... though it is still up to question as to whether early integration could possibly be good, or if the shithead, self-centered section of "humanity" that demands modern hegemony should've prevailed, let alone actually prevailed...

I'd kinda want to bring doggerbank back, buuuut then i'd miss the irish and british cultures

Form it into a huge bust of Trump. We all can live on it. Like in Corsair Cove. The game where you place your buildings and pathways vertically, attached to a wall.

I imagine having a small garden on his left nipple, with an insect hotel and maybe a patio swing.

Also, it would be a lot like Australia where the coasts are nearly the only habitable places while the entire center is nearly barren.

That would be possible, but depends on a shit ton of variables. It could just as easily be a giant rainforest full of massive lakes and rivers.

I believe Aussie is so dry inland, because one single tectonic plate can't really make mountains, so it's all flat and what water make it there just evaporate.

Multiple plates jammed together gets huge mountain ranges, which means slopw for rivers and maybe even snow melt that flows down.

All continents surrounded by mountains reaching into space

I will not help an omnipotent time traveller reshape the past Earth, I simply will not!

Move all landmass to the southpole and give up on life on land

Ideal for what?

For human growth with modern infrastructure?

For a rich diversity of ecosystems to encourage certain evolutionary paths?

For... third thing... idk someone said weather?

There's no way I can try to answer this without actually being the watchmaker and having a perfect understanding pf the consequences

You would be randomly born into this world when you finish, so that's your motivation