I would say that it has everything to do with travel and time away from school. With finals, AP ect. imagine if they seeded the tournament and you were a team from western NY and you played Suffolk in the first round went home and had to come back three days later to play Nassau and go home and come back and play a State Championship at Hofstra all while finals and testing were going on.
The rest of NYS has to deal with all of the issues you've raised - NYS is fairly large state.
Really - you want to compare Orchard Park to Pittsfield and Orchard Park to Ward Melville? you are talking the difference between missing two days of school, taking a coach bus and staying overnight in a hotel vs. leaving school a little early and taking a school bus. not to mention the families and friends not being able to go to the games or making huge sacrifices to go. And imagine the reaction when your school district says you might need to layout $150 - $200 for your kid to play in a quarter final game.
The make pairings in D1 opening games based on travel distances I think doing it in HS makes total sense.
