Well my point is that you don't have to work Maryland to get WAS. District of Columbia is not part of Maryland, and it is not a state.
OK, but there's a difference between redefining political boundaries -- which is what the DC thing in WAS is -- versus working fewer total things to get a basic award on the way to collecting a complete set for the full award.
Your own example of Northern Ireland makes the point I am making (and, in the end, you are making).
Hams have never been about the exact political boundaries. Nobody but us refers to Northern Ireland or Hawaii as a "country" -- which we have done since DeSoto for some of these things. (The "entity" thing is a late-breaking fudge and a lot of us eschew it).
If we were interested only in exact political boundaries, Bouvet would count as Norway and DXCC would be defined as UN Member states only.
All of it is arbitrary in the end.
I suggest people will be happier and less hung up over wording if we treat WAZ as what it is -- a Brand and not an absolute phrase.
If you want to treat WAS the same way -- as a brand -- I won't object. But at least there are still "50" somethings you work there or you get nothing. So, not quite the same.