What you imagine is simply incorrect. Modelers have no connection to temperature record maintainers. And both groups get paid regardless of their findings. And I should point out that the UHI research that I cited was part of the Berkeley Earth project (one of the preeminent surface sets) and was funded by the Koch brothers. It was established with the intent to discredit the other datasets' findings, was headed by a mild rejectionist, and included rejectionist Judy Curry as a team member. They found the same results. Oops.

The UHI paper cited contained a map of the near 40,000 stations used. While I have not seen a proportion analysis, there appears not to be a significant bias toward urban areas. And again, the findings of the UHI paper that I cited (as well as other research) indicate that urban heating has virtually no impact on global temperature records. BTW, keep in mind that they are anomalies (changes in temperature) being used for analysis, not actual temperatures.