Alaskan here. Image search for a US map. If the map even includes Alaska and Hawaii (the 49th and 50th states), they are usually not more than a smudge in the lower left corner of the page. Most US maps contain more details for regions that aren’t even in the US than its largest and most northern, western, and eastern state. Though not self-evident in this map, there is also a still to this day consistent trend of exclusion when it comes to things that simply refer to “the US”. So someone made a map that exaggerates the mediocrity of what we refer to as the “lower 48”. For the artistic value, it’s a very popular map up here.
Alaskan here. Image search for a US map. If the map even includes Alaska and Hawaii (the 49th and 50th states), they are usually not more than a smudge in the lower left corner of the page. Most US maps contain more details for regions that aren’t even in the US than its largest and most northern, western, and eastern state. Though not self-evident in this map, there is also a still to this day consistent trend of exclusion when it comes to things that simply refer to “the US”. So someone made a map that exaggerates the mediocrity of what we refer to as the “lower 48”. For the artistic value, it’s a very popular map up here.