Cherry picking one state to remove, even as a thought experiment, makes zero sense to me.
The discussion concerns, in part, a perceived unfairness based on state size/population. I chose the most populated state. And then I chose the second most populated state. Also, by virtue of its size and partisan voting trend, California is - I believe - the only state that would have made a difference in 2016 under a popular vote system. I thought it helpful that the 2nd biggest state had an opposite partisan voting trend. So there are some analytical reasons for choosing these particular states given part of the discussion here.