Muscles posted...
Timezones are more political than scientific which feels like it defeats the purpose.
Not so much "political" as just being convenient. If chunks of Alaska were on a different day from the rest of the country at all times, that'd be a nightmare to work around. Similarly, even if you could make a case for, say, having half of Quebec on Atlantic time, it's easier to just make the whole province Eastern than to have to remember that Montreal and Quebec City are in different time zones.
At the end of the day, time zones are always going to be approximations in how well they relate to the day-night cycle. Even if you did divide the earth up with 24 perfect north-south lines, the sun is going to set an hour later on the western edge of any given time zone than on the eastern edge. With that in mind, fudging zone lines a bit to make them easier to remember and minimize the chance that people in a given state (or similar geopolitical region) have to think about what time it is in another city within that state is pretty reasonable. There are limits, of course, and examples of it being a little silly, but I still don't see a problem with taking some liberties.