"Commander, humans spend a lot of money on strange paper cups filled with hot bean water. Surprisingly, there isn't much traffic in the sky, which is highly inefficient. Finally, I must ask: how many cats does one human actually need?"

a lot of: "Money" is an uncountable noun. In positive sentences, we usually use "a lot of" rather than "much."

much: "Traffic" is an uncountable noun. In negative sentences (there isn't...), we use "much."

many: "Cats" is a plural countable noun. For questions asking about quantity, we use "how many."