A: All states are artificial, my dears. They are all human constructs.
If you look around Europe for international frontiers that “make sense” on historical, geographical, ethnic and linguistic grounds, you will find that pretty much the only one satisfying those criteria is the border between England and France.
Most European borders are tidemarks in the ebb and flow of empires, and the borders of Belgium are not unusual in that respect.
It’s possible – though probably unlikely – that some of the original photos were flipped. Most of them have letters in them and look fine.