Guess, we aren't talking about NYC anymore...
Anyhoo, obviously, you haven't had a conversation with a real upstater yet.

You're absolutely right, to a metro New Yorker, generally anything North of the Bronx is Upstate. To some, Uptown is confused with Upstate. Anyone living in Yonkers will tell you that they are upstaters. To a "real" upstater, any place south of the Catskills is downstate and anything below Dutchess County is "The City".
To the locals, upstate doesn't really start until you go North pass the line extended from what we call the Twin Tiers (NY/PA border). Coincidentally, that is more or less how the NY State Gymnastics governing body divide up the state -- particularly for the two Level 4 team Cup (Upstate vs. Downstate).