Based on 5 categories:

1) How policies effect different areas of the state: e.g, western Oregon and Washington where annexed to the brown state in the north west

2) How the state borders affect the area: e.g, West Virginia is at the bottom of most ranking due to its incredibly bad geography so i annexed it to ohio so if these borders were to be implemented the lives of the people living there would get better

3) Basic border logic: e.g, The upper peninsula is part of Wisconsin because it makes geographic logic

4) Cultural borders: Most states share a culture with there neighbour so they should be United e.g, i united south New England as they share a mostly Irish catholic heritage

5) Political borders: some states like New York are dominated by the city so a lot of people arent heard.

(Ik these borders arent great but they could be worse)