Consider an infinite undirected graph $G$, like for example $\mathbb{Z}^d$ with edges connecting nearest neighbours sites. Let $X(t)$ be a simple random walk starting from the origin, $o$, define $ B_L := \{ x \in \mathbb{Z}^d \, \, : \, \, d(x,o) \leq L\} $ namely the set of sites whose graph distance from the origin is at most $L$. Let $ E_1 $ be the expected number of steps performed by the simple random walk before leaving the set $B_L$ or returning to the origin, $$ E_1 = E \big ( \sum\limits_{t=0}^{\infty} \mathbb{1}\{ t < \tau_{B_L^c \cup \{o\}} \} \big ), $$ where $\mathbb{1}$ is the indicator function, $E$ is the expectation of the simple random walk, and $\tau_{B_L^c \cup \{o\}}$ is the hitting time of the set $B_L^c \cup \{o\}$, where $B_L^c:= \mathbb{Z}^d \setminus B_L$. Let $E_2$ be the expected number of distinct vertices visited by the simple random walk before leaving $B_L$ or returning to the origin, $$ E_2 = \sum\limits_{x\in B_L}^{\infty} \mathbb{1}\{ \exists t < \tau_{B_L^c \cup \{o\}} \, \, \, s.t. \, \, X_t = x\} $$
Are $E_1$ and $E_2$ of the same order of magnitude in $L$? The answer is easy and positive if the graph is transient, but what about recurrent graphs?
It would be enough for me to receive some hint!
First, note that $E_1 = E(\tau_{B_L^x \cup \{o\}})$, ie is just the expected hitting time.
I expect this can depend a lot on the graph. Take, for example, just $\mathbb Z$. Recall that the expected return time to the origin (for a standard symmetric SRW) is infinite. On the other hand, the expected exit time of $[-L,L]$ is order $L^2$. Given that the walk exits $[-L,L]$ before returning to $0$, it hits precisely $L$ distinct vertices.
Now, a slight caveat: I've said "expected return time to the origin is $\infty$" and "expected exit time of $[-L,L]$ is order $L^2$" -- these are both correct statements, but they don't, a priori, imply that "expected exit time of $[-L,L]$, given that the origin is not returned to, is order $L^2$". However, this should be pretty easy to prove: first walk from $0$ to $L/2$ directly (this is the worst that conditioning on not returning to $0$ can do for the first $L/2$ steps); now hitting $0$ or $L$ is the same as exiting the interval $[L/2 - L/2, L/2 + L/2]$, which is order $(L/2)^2$, ie order $L^2$. I'm sure one can make this rigorous.
Using the fact that a SRW on $\mathbb Z^2$ is just a pair of independent SRWs on $\mathbb Z$ (in continuous time), one can likely extend this result to $\mathbb Z^2$ without too much change or additional ideas.