What is the size limit of a figure?

After going through the journal club process, I have been left with just one reflective thought: what is a figure? In the general sense, it is quite easy to find a generic definition off the internet. For example, Merriam Webster dictionary calls a figure “a diagram or pictorial illustration of textual matter”. Despite scouring the internet for a while, I could not find any definitions or explanations with rules regarding how many things can be included in a figure. Still, I feel like at some point there needs to be a rule about the number of graphs and tables that can be shoved together and called a singular figure. There are countless examples of figures that fill entire article pages with combinations of schematics, tables, and multiple types of graphs all in one. 
As an example, Figure 1 in my journal club article contained EIGHTEEN graphs. There were EIGHTEEN graphs in ONE figure. Panel B alone had 6 graphs. It seems like panel B could have definitely stood alone as a figure. Even 6 graphs seem like a lot to group together as a singular figure. As another example, Figure 2 had 5 panels. Panel A had two bar graphs, panel B had a schematic diagram with two scatterplots, panel C had a diagram and a scatterplot, panel D had one chart with 27 genes listed and ten categories for those genes, and panel E had a schematic and a scatterplot. Additionally, Figure 3 had 5 panels. Panel A was a schematic diagram, panel B was two scatterplots, panel C was a large heatmap, panel D was a three part bar graph, and panel E was six heatmaps. 
In my opinion, all three of those examples are great examples of figures that ought to be split into several smaller figures. If the purpose of a figure is to communicate data in a way that is easier than the text, then a figure with 18 components is hardly a simple and easy to follow representation of the data. I would love to be able to propose some sort of rule to the powers that be in the journal creating world, that figures must be capped at maybe 2-3 panels each containing only one type of data representation. I do not understand the issue with having 15 smaller figures rather than 4 colossal figures. It seems like for the sake of understanding one point at a time, smaller figures would do a much better job representing data. So I ask one more time: what is a figure, and why does a year’s worth of work need to all fit into one figure?

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