I would say out of the three I prefer Maryland the most only because of College Park, where I went to college. NoVa's alright, I went to high school there so it's special to me / I made a lot of good friends there, I don't really go there much now that I'm 22.
Yeah I agree that the majority of people come here because of work, you don't see to many people choose to come here for the city / nightlife / culture. But yeah, people complain like mad about DC and it irks me. Honestly I did it to for a while, but eventually got so tired with the lack of culture / all the politics that I decided on moving. I'm in Santa Monica now looking for places, I'm moving in January.
Do you live in DC? Nice username btw.