...are there so many clans for a game with a small community that peaks at only a few hundred people?

cas people dont like to be alone. so they make a clan

Who knows Tool... Who knows...

But there's way too many. The clans page goes on for around 10 pages.
HK, PS, Komrades, Elite, MLG, RoT, TBR,CH,WBT...too many..

Think of it like this. Every time you see "how do you change guns?!" 10 people have just played, for the first time. Lots of people play this game every day, making the community much bigger :D

What do clans have to do with first timers?

The proportion is almost 3 clans for every 1 player.

I'm in one and I have no idea why every other person makes a clan.

It's just a clan. Don't like, don't join. Do like, do join, etc, etc. That's how it is here lol.

Playing clan matches is much more fun than your regular public-server rambo run. And when you add in the coolness of being in a super-erlite-major-league-gaming-pro-killer-komrades clan, never mind leading it, you can see why it's quite appealing for some users. You'll also get to show all the Deuces your 1337 clan tag -=[SEMLGPKK]=-, which leaves no room for your actual nickname.

More clans should equal to more matches. Sadly the smaller clans have a tough time getting enough members to play a nice 10 vs 10 lineup. It's safe to say that while there are a lot of clans in the community, the weaker ones will die off in a couple of months time while some clans make it bigger and get some activity, too. There's no such thing as 'too many clans'.