I don't really disagree with anything you say, but there was more in my throwaway comment about imagined identities. Maybe I can dig up an earlier thread where I discussed this at length, here very shortly:

For me, nation states are real existing things, came about the forced way you describe, but nations themselves not. What I mean is that even after the heavy uniformising drive, people counting themselves into the same nation differ strongly on (1) what they consider the common elements defining that nation, and on (2) who else they are willing to consider part of their nation.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}