I'm sure the answer to those on high is force projection across the Pacific.
I could see some sort of real voting representation in the House for Guam/CNMI/Virgin (I think that's all the populated territories right?). Perhaps some sort of presidential voting too. That probably requires expansion of the House as they are quite quite small population wise. Full statehood seems out of the question, I can't see current states accepting them as equals (and I agree, an island of 50k people as the equal to California sounds ridiculous). I'm not sure about the Virgin Islands, but I know Guam/CNMI have historically voted/worked towards closer relations with the US. They're probably fully aware that as relatively tiny island nations they're going to wind up 'territories' to some world power one way or another.