Been out of touch for a couple of days so late to chime in with some thoughts.
1. Yes 48 teams is too freaking many. And way too many in my book. There is no soccer reason to do this its money and nothing else. Remember that EVERY country on the planet gets to play in the World Cup. Every single one that wants to. People forget that its a two year long tournament and what is commonly thought of as the World Cup is only the final tournament.
2. The final will be played in the US. Canada and Mexico only get preliminary matches. All quarterfinal and further matches will be in the US. If I had to pick a final location right now I'd venture LA.
3. FIFA has not decided yet how to deal with the three host countries and allocating auto bids. This will be interesting to see how it shakes out. I have to imagine that the US, at a minimum, will get an auto bid since we are hosting the majority of the matches but then this is FIFA we are talking about.