could the 16x9 grid be just one sprite, or tiledbackground - showing all the connections open, then add the connectors to close the ones that aren't open. Or if the map has more close connections than open ones then reverse that (have them all closed and only add the open ones).
If the connectors are wide enough and centered between two levels, then one could do the job for both sides of the connection, cutting the number needed in half...
I made a calendar app that could show up to 12 months at once, each month had 40 cells, each cell was a sprite and a text box. In total I had well over 1000 objects on screen and performance was fine.