I think it just tries to prioritize games closer to you first before checking other regions, but if you want to get games fast, that's just how it is.

Sidenote:
If you are playing Strive Ranked and you're in the states, make sure to set your entry region to East Coast because otherwise you'll be waiting for games for awhile even if you have matchmaking region set to all.

Stream over!
Got positive ELO, so that's cool. and I actually had people in chat at the end so I got to do a raid!

I will definitely play Strive more often (independent of that, but you know).