First statistic to test should be a simple rowID range per index.
This can be used in the GeoWaveInputFormat to restrict the range of negative and positive infinity.
In this case, the range from the tablet server is also negative and positive infinity.
When forcing more splits, the cardinality defaults to one byte since the true cardinality cannot be determined from the infinite range. Providing actual range over the row IDs can provide an accurate measure of cardinality, allowing for more optimal splits