I think you make an excellent point but you are leaving out factors that shouldn’t be left out.

What you’ve described is fine and if the people you’re talking about are happy, great. But that doesn’t change a few fundamental metrics that anyone, red or blue, can agree are important.

OP was getting at those. Things like lowered education rates, more racism, more teen pregnancy, lower life expectancy - these are all objectively more present in red states vs blue.

Is these really things that are less important than the ability to sit around fishing with people who think like you? I’ve lived in many blue states, and tbh I can do that stuff there.