The NCAA Softball Tournament committee obviously based the groupings on geography as well as the intention to divide conferences up. No two SEC teams or PAC teams, etc. are facing off in the same Regional. Thus, some of the brackets are tougher than others despite the seedings.
Much like the 2021-22 football season, the 2022 softball season has been an odd one. In both sports, there was a great deal of parity across the nation. Oklahoma had been the dominant softball team all year but then outstanding freshman pitcher Jordy Bahl was injured in the second to last game of the regular season (probably due to overuse; Sound familiar?