There's an argument to be made there. In terms of the lived reality in the Baltics that's entirely likely. In terms of the second point though, the portrayal of westernized, there just isn't as much media or political attention on the Baltic countries in the US. In Europe there is some, given Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are EU members, but that's more on a dry international relations level.

This may just be my subjective take on it all though.