The idea behind data sharding and LB is almost same in these chapters.

My question is: Why LB is always saying more intelligent solution rather than naming a good solution, like consistent hashing on ip may be?

Second even hash on LocationID would need consistent hashing, if you have 10 static servers we can do LocationID % 10, but what if server size increases?

In either one: a. Sharding based on regions b. Sharding based on LocationID

The end goal is consistent hashing.