Interesting statement and it got me thinking about how many states I've "been to". I spent maybe 10 minutes trying to remember them all. So,
IIRC, I've only actually "been to or really visited" ~17 states (meaning spent at least a day/night there or at least visiting a specific destination). Add another ~15 states that I have only driven through, and maybe another ~12 that I've flown over. So the way I'd count them, I've really only been to ~17 states, but the most liberal count would be ~44.
Oh well that was fun.