I think it actually would work best in large scale. The more people, the more people that work, the less time people have to work while still generating enough resources for the whole of the community while also having extra, the larger it gets the better it gets because the easier it gets for everyone else.

well firstly i don't see how your math works (e.g. if it take 100 people each working 35 hours a weeks to support 100 people, wouldn't it also take 10000 each working 35 hours a week to support 10000 people? the need for resources and the amount of people are proportional), but also, my main issue with a large scale was the need for industrialization. in small communes, industrialization isn't particularly necessary, but when more people join it is, and i don't see how you will achieve that