The thing to remember about the size of Kazon space is that while it did take Voyager about 2 years to get out of that area, there was a LOT of side quests and backtracking that ruined progress. (Which was ultimately why Seska and Culluh were able to capture Voayger in "BASICS, PART I".)

We know they took 'a significant detour' to go back to Rinax in "JETREL". How much of a detour was never said, but 'significat' at the very least doesn't sound like it's on the way they are heading. So that's the first major setback (in terms of progressing toward home).

Next, we have "INVESTIGATIONS"... the warp coils are damaged severely, enough that Torres needs to immediately replace at least some of them to be functional again. That puts them at a standstill. We don't know how long it would take them to finish that level of repairs, and since there are no other Starfleet repair stations around, that adds extra time since they have to do it all themselves. (We see other shows indicate massive damage to nacelles and warp coils take much longer to repair in space than at a station, such as ENT in "TWILIGHT" and "DAMAGE".) Again, no time frame given, but that likely has to set them back a couple weeks, minimum. (I'll agree this one is more supposition on my part than anything, but the facts as shown here and other shows at least supports the idea.)

Next, the big one: "RESOLUTIONS". Voyager spent about 3 weeks in orbit of the world where Janeway and Chakotay got bitten by the bug while The Doctor was trying to find a cure. Add to that the 6 weeks that went by when they got the cure from Denara, which means it took 6 more weeks to get back to Janeway and Chakotay. That's 2 and a half months right there. Just in that episode alone, more than a quarter of a year passed by, with no actual progress in their journey home.

Which brings us to the very next episode, "BASICS, PART I". That lack of progress on their journey home was what truly allowed the Nistrim to hatch their plan and take Voyager.

I do agree that the Ocampa homeworld was probably the outer edge of overall Kazon space, since the only other episode we encounter the Ogla is the first produced episode of season 2, "INITIATIONS". As Finn mentioned, "ALLIANCES" probably took place near the center of overall Kazon space. (It's an assumption, but nothing really contradicts it, so I buy that.)

Given all the time lost and detours taken, I can actually see Kazon space not only taking as long as they did to get past it, but it not really actually BEING that large to begin with. ("BASICS, PART II" was the final produced episode for season 2, but was held back to be the season 3 premiere.) Voyager got stranded on roughly stardate 48308, and "BASICS, PART II" took place on stardate 50032 (per The Doctor's log), which is about 1 year and 9 months, give or take, between the two dates. Subtract at least the time lost in "RESOLUTIONS", and that's less than a year and a half of progress. Factor in "JETREL", "INVESTIGATIONS", and other times they had to sit still and repair the ship ("DEADLOCK" would have to be included in this, since Voyager was damaged VERY severely), and at least 1 or 2 months can be shaved off their actual progress. That brings us down to 1 year and about 3 months of progressing on the journey. But, of course, there are a lot of stops along the way for exploration, finding shortcuts that didn't pan out, etc.

Point being is that I can easily see Voyager not really making any true progress in their journey until they got past Kazon space, and their space just seeming vast while not actually being vast.