Simple returns?  Arizona, California, New York, Massachusetts?  Maybe for lower-AGI, non-itemizers. You have an indefinite antecedent there, on second reading maybe you mean the residents have simple returns, not the states.  

It's progress, but mostly because it moves the people using the private-sector programs into a government program where their data may be safer and the state return is included in the same step.  (At least with California, online free filing is available through a separate source.)  

Will it ever come to the Rust Belt states, with their city and county returns?  If we believe what we hear about AI, maybe all things are possible.