People like to call out odd shaped districts like MD-3, MD-7, IL-4, or IL-7 as partisan gerrymandering...but it really isn't at all, it's usually done either for grouping people together (hispanics and blacks) or just silly incumbent protection districts. Neither of which really helps the "democrats" as whole in any meaningful way.
I've seen Republicans call out IL-4 more times than I can count, but no matter how you draw that district I completely guarantee you it will still be heavily Democratic.
Correct. IL-4 and 7 are legacies of the 1991 map to accommodate botha Latino and black CD on the west side of Chicago. They could have been drawn differently this cycle and looked less gerrymandered, but the incumbents preferred districts that were substantially the same as they have had for 20 years. IL-1 and 2 were gerrymandered much further out to accommodate incumbents as well, since 3 black-majority CDs were no longer required under the VRA. The significant Dem gerrymanders were IL-5, 8 and 11 with Pub packs into IL-6 and 14.