The difference is, are we talking about a geographical or political separation?
ICANN groups political dependencies with the mother country. I gather that France insisted.
'political regions'. Also, what about Wake Island, Midway, Saipan, US Minor outlaying islands, etc.? Guam is an excellent example.
Guam and Saipan (CNMI) are listed explicitly as part of the NA region since they're part of the US. Wake, Midway, et al are uninhabited, but since they're US territory, they're also part of US. It's no sillier than Kerguelen being part of Europe.
When my group was applying for ALS, we had deep discussions on whether Hawaii should be in Asia-Pacific or North America.
We don't get to decide, ICANN has already divided up the world for us. R's, John