My comment is based on a colloquial division of the state into three regions - up, down and central. I think yours is based on more regions or districts including western, capital and north country and hudson valley. But note in that schema there is no region that gets labelled as “upstate” or even “downstate” for that matter.
Or to put it another way, if there are only three choices, then is Albany central new york, or upstate?
That’s a tough one. Geographically, it’s Upstate, but it’s both too far east to be really central and politically it’s certainly downstate.
In CNY lingo, it’s either Upstate or downstate. I think in general, we in WNY and CNY think of anything from Albany and southeast as *downstate* based mostly on political climate and some on geography.
The other designations are then divining Upstate.
Then it’s:
Western NY (out to about Rochester)
Central (Syracuse area AKA Finger Lakes region. Rochester to Syracuse)
Mohawk Valley (Rome-Utica area)
North Country (north of the Thruway from Syracuse east to the state line)
Capitol District (Schenectady to Albany and towards NYC)
Hudson Valley (Albany down to the city)
The Southern Tier which is anything along the PA border from Jamestown through Corning, Binghamton, on to Schenectady.)
FWIW, many of those designations are established by the state and you’ll see signs to that effect along the Thruway.
I asked mr. mm who is more familiar with state history and politics than I am.
He said that traditionally, *upstate* was anything west of the Hudson River. And NYCer’s considered Albany sort of a detached suburb of NYC.