You seem to really dislike how you think California does things…
In any case, the more numerous CSUs do not adjust FA based on commuter versus resident status. The less numerous UCs do, but they are more expensive than attending a CSU as a commuter. In practice, CSUs are generally commuter-based campuses, located mostly to provide broad access to as much of the state population as possible, similar to how you see Alabama public universities (though increasing selectivity at some CSU campuses and the population distribution in some parts of the state make this access uneven). The UCs are typically seen as offering more academic opportunities for some stronger students, but, being less numerous, are not practical to commute to for a much larger portion of the state population than the CSUs are (higher selectivity also means that many students aiming for UCs may only get admission to non-local ones, even if they do live near one). Hence, the idea that students strong enough to go to UCs will be supported FA-wise even if they have to move to the campus. Note that California also encourages the low cost commuter route to both CSUs and UCs for frosh/soph students through the transfer pathway starting at the community colleges.
Now, if we look at the Alabama equivalent with UA and AU, do people think of them as providing better academic opportunities (at least for stronger students) than their local state universities (the analogs of the CSUs)? If so, would it make more sense to offer better FA support even for non-local students from lower income families, or leave access to them primarily determined by family income and wealth? If not (meaning that they are considered academically equivalent in a broad sense to whatever local state universities are elsewhere in the state), then it makes sense just to treat them as another campus that exists primarily to serve the local commuter population.
Really, California is not that different from Alabama in terms of locating local state universities around the state to provide commuter access to as much of the population as possible. The main difference here appears to be FA policy at the (relatively few) flagships.