Also, many would rather be slightly worse off economically and live under a slightly less authoritarian (in the dictionary sense of the word) and paternalistic government/society than the reverse.

I've lived in all three of the states in question here. It's not just the guns and the fireworks. It's really hard to explain without using imprecise and loaded words (specifically "socialist" and "individualist") or making sweeping generalizations but there's just something about society in NH and ME that's much more permissive of basically whatever an individual wants to do and nicer to people whereas in MA everyone expects everyone to step in line and act however the "right" way to act is. This difference seems to be reflected in all levels of government (government is of course made up of individuals who have personal beliefs and biases). It's also hard to over-state how much nicer people are in the rural parts of NH and ME than they are in MA.

I'd also say that the government in MA gets in everyone's way whereas in NH and ME it stays out of people's way. When I spend over an hour on public transit in MA daily and the regulars I ride with are always complaining about government (state and local). They're complaining about "the MBTA did bad thing W", "some other department did bad thing X", "the state cops are covering for their buddies doing bad thing Y", we pay all these taxes and they can't even get Z done" That stuff is just not even a consideration in NH and ME. Then the government isn't a source of problems for people in those states. It probably sounds like I'm over-focusing but it really creeps into every aspect of your life.

And FWIW the economic argument isn't gonna resonate with me. I'm probably gonna take a huge pay cut in a few years to move to one of those places and I have in-laws who moved from MA to upstate VT because "being poor sucks less in BFE Vermont than it does in southeast MA." (I'm paraphrasing).

A lot of this is the difference between urban and rural and not the states in themselves but northern New England is much more rural than southern New England and it shows at the state level so it's effectively differences between states because you can't get the NH experience by moving somewhere rural in MA (lol, tried that).

I guess if you just want to live in a typical apartment, work a typical job, live in a typical house, pursue typical and unobtrusive hobbies, raise a typical middle of the road family, etc MA is fine but if you're gonna deviate from the norms you'll get whacked hard by society there (tall nail gets the hammer, or so the phrase goes) and would probably be better off in NH. For example, the fact that the free-staters, specifically the more extreme ones in Keene who sometimes don't register their vehicles and generally thumb their nose at authority at every opportunity continue to exist (and not behind bars) shows how tolerant NH is.

I know I'm going on a rant here but this is an internet comment, not a medium post.