Afaict OP's not comparing neuron count, but neuron-to-neuron connections, aka synapses. And considering each synapse (weighted input) to a neuron performs compu

Afaict OP's not comparing neuron count, but neuron-to-neuron connections, aka synapses. And considering each synapse (weighted input) to a neuron performs computation, I'd say it's possible it captures a meaningful property of a neural network.