[kens]

The chip was designed in 1971, so layout would have been drawing it on a large piece of paper and then cutting the masks out of sheets of plastic (Rubylith).

The layout looks typical for that era. Keep in mind that this is an analog chip, so resistors take up a lot of space. Also, with just 24 transistors, you don't need to squeeze every bit out of the layout. I've looked at other versions of the 555 timer and the layout isn't much better. Even the CMOS 555 has a lot of wasted space.