The modern nation-state can be seen either as one variant in a wider typology of states or as one stage in a long-term process of state formation. But it is not the same thing as "the state." Conflating the two has led to some wildly misguided claims about the premodern world.
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Interesting -- I thought you were going in the other direction, i.e., to note a reluctance to attach the "state" label to *non*-western polities even when they *meet* the definition! But I do take the point you're actually making.
That's also a problem too, absolutely. Two sides of the same coin really.