Ok. So lets look at the US on a state level - some got terribly rich, some suffer terribly?

Which US part suffered terribly?

Kansas

How is this "misleading"?

We want the poorer countries to get richer faster in order to close the gap. Accomplishing precisely this is a large part of EU policy. And it is working.

If the US had its eastern part communist, it too would have a higher average GDP from decades ago. It is basic economics.

GDP per capita in the US ranges from $200k (DC) to $38K (MI).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...

Lots of ways to catch up there as well.

And that doesn't change the fact that that is the actual data, nothing "misleading" about it.