Explained intuitively, why does aspect ratio affect induced drag? Over the last few hours, I've been trying to intuitively understand induced drag, and how aspect ratio affects it. I already know the equations, but while they explain the relationship, they do not really explain anything, I want to understand what is happening physically. I've read on many answers in this community, specially by Peter Kämpf, but I've been unable to attain an intuitive understanding.
I will explain my line of thinking, hopefully I can be corrected on any misconceptions, or wrong assumptions.
First of all, my way of thinking about lift is simply airflow being redirected. If airflow is redirected by a surface, a force in the opposite direction is applied on said surface. This means that for lift to be generated, downwash must exist, therefore induced drag is an inseparable side-effect of generating lift.

Let's imagine 2 theoretical wings, both of which have the same area, but differ in aspect ratio.
If induced drag depends on the downwash angle, why would a longer wingspan reduce the angle? If the downwash angle is reduced, then the amount of air being redirected (total mass) must increase to keep lift equal, how can that happen when the wing area is equal?
All of the sources I am able to find blame induced drag solely on wingtip vortexes, since they cause downwash, but the entire wing is creating downwash, so what gives?
If tip vortexes are what cause induced drag, how does a longer wingspan reduce the induced drag coefficient? As an example: If the span of rectangular a wing is increased without changing the chord length, the aspect ratio will increase, which according to the math, will lower the induced drag coefficient. How does a longer wingspan affect the vortexes such as to reduce the downwash?
Let's imagine 2 theoretical wings, both of which have the same area, but differ in aspect ratio.

Then the wing with the higher aspect ratio also has more span. This is what counts.

If induced drag depends on the downwash angle, why would a longer wingspan reduce the angle?

Because the wider wing will affect more air. Think of the air affected by the wing as what flows through a tube, the diameter of which equals wing span. Like in the picture below.

Of course, for clarity, the amount of bending the stream tube undergoes due to the wing is greatly exaggerated here. In reality it is a few degrees at most.

how can that happen when the wing area is equal?

Wing chord does not count here as long as the amount of stream tube bending can be done by the skinnier wing. More chord will not affect the result. Only when too much being is asked of a limited chord will the wing stall. At lower lift coefficients, more chord will only increase friction drag.
In reality the influence of the wing fades the more you move away from it. This picture of a stream tube is a simplification which you will also find in propeller theory, and it gives the correct result, because what you neglect in the far field you compensate by assuming a constant influence over the near field.

All of the sources I am able to find blame induced drag solely on wingtip vortexes

You do well to disregard those sources. They have the causality backwards.