The scattering of stations around EVE does not seem to have any consistency or pattern...CCP tweaked a little dials, and boom.
Eh. I think there was some thought applied to some of the constellation workups.
Take Crux in Essence, for example.
Algogille (headquarters system of Federal Administration and the Federation Navy) - <tinfoil hat> Algogille may have been the first capital system of the new Federation, chosen over Luminaire as a symbolic gesture for Caldari and Gallente coming together as one space faring people, rather than clinging to their home planets. </tinfoil hat off>
Couster (FNA campus station system)
Duripant (headquarters system of the Federal Navy Academy)
Luminaire (home world system of the Caldari and Gallente peoples, headquarters system of Federation Customs) - <tinfoil hat> Even though Algogille may have been the first administrative capital of the Federation, Luminaire remained its financial one for quite a long time. It can still be argued that it remains so, even though Dodixie -- whose emergence as a trade hub might have begun when the capital was relocated from Algogille to Villore -- and Ours very likely overshadow it in terms of capsuleer ISK changing hands.</tinfoil hat>
Mies (Federation Navy system, Chemal Tech and Astral Mining site (this despite a lack of serious mineral resources in the system -- but note that CreoDron's a partner to
both Chemal Tech and Astral Mining), site of one of Duvolle's first expansion laboratories, home of former Presidential candidate Governor Celes Aguard*)
Oursulaert (trade hub system) <tinfoil hat on> Ours may have been uplifted from a relative backwater after the Federation made first contact with the Amarr. That contact might have also spurred the eventual colonization of Verge, with the jumping off point being Ours.</tinfoil hat off>
Renyn (headquarters system of the Federal Intelligence Office, Customs & Chemal Tech site)
*Among other, non-canon things, including my tinfoil hattery as to why the Chemal Tech think tank that eventually became the Center for Advanced Studies might have been relocated from Mies to Verge Vendor. And yes, Aguard's first name still amuses me.