That last link was good. It makes sense it varies from state to state; should have expected that. Apparently there are a few states still strict about things like straight married couples with good income, though it does appear most states are fairly amicable in what's considered acceptable, and while there is some criteria it's not generally extreme. It reads more like meeting criteria of a home in which the state wouldn't remove a child, finding it acceptable rather than requiring some high standard. This is a link from your link which seems to agree quite a bit with what I had in mind.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/homestudyreqs_adoption.pdf"No one else has to meet criteria to have a kid." is debatable in and of itself,
To some extent, yes, but it's extreme circumstances where people aren't allowed to leave a hospital with custody of a newborn. Was just thinking attitudes from the days of old were gone, where the state considered orphans better off in state institutions with no parents at all, than with single parents, gay parents, older parents, lower waged parents, racially mixed, or whatever. Seems it's not entirely gone, but maybe getting that way.