You make some really good points, but why do you say "a country with good, but not great, relationships with the US?"
But you also don't want a country that is enemies or has strained relations with the US - they're very likely to take advantage of you/snowden for their own gain. Or arrest you and torture you for the information you have.
You want a country where they like the US, have normal diplomatic relations, but don't necessarily want to seem like a puppet of the americans. They should have a strong belief in protecting individual freedoms.
Also, when you try to get asylum/protection in a country like Brazil or Ecuador or Iceland, etc. - no one can stand up and say, "He's helping our enemies".