I'm in Iowa, I can only tell you about Missouri. It has decent laws for the most part but at least in the north central part, where I do a lot of work, the environment sucks. Humid as sin, full of bugs, rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths, plants that will make you itchy, and meth heads. The hunting and fishing is solid though. Southeastern Mo. has some good traits if you like the woods. It has clear streams, low population, wildlife, and fish. To my understanding, it still has a lot of meth heads though.
TBH I don't think you can narrow your search by state most of the time. I wouldn't live in Cali or Illinois because of the politics, but even those states have areas that would be good. It's all about the local areas you're looking at.
(If you can stand the winters and the endless miles of cornfields, Iowa has a lot going for it. Just sayin'...)