Note, the word is homeland. Not home-state, not home-nation. Homeland. Our homes are specific, physical places on Earth, not mental constructs. Which of course makes a lot of sense, because our bonds are attachments are born of concrete memories, of specific places and people and occasions. Not, in the first instance, of some abstract notion of loyalty or duty to the abstract institution of the state or the abstract community of the nation.
Following similar logic, the word country originally referred merely to a piece of land, and only afterwards developed its political meanings. Maybe it's not such a bad placeholder word for places where neither 'nation' nor 'state' seems to fit very well.
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