How do I create Warped arc text in Adobe Illustrator with better symmetry?

My first choice would be to create Text on a Path. (Curved Path).

Text is centered aligned.

Then with your Black arrow, you can manually adjust how you want the characters to realign.

K

Wyatt,

What looks right is right.

I am afraid that if you align the curve based on the bottom of the W and the bottom of the N on the X-axis, the graphic will look pushed to the left.

I believe you will need a more balanced, preferably iterative, approach.

You may try this:

With the original WILMINGTON created with Paragraph>Align center of course, you may reflect across Vertical on top of itself (coinciding Bounding Boxes), then Group, then apply the Arc, then hide the mirror text, and see.

Undo is your friend, and you may use a few lines (Line (Segment) Tool) to see the horizontal level of the tops and bottoms of the W and N; but ultimately, it is the visual appearance of the arced text itself that matters. You can, if you must, unhide then Object>Expand Appearance and delete the mirrored text to get uneditable/unchangeable outlined text, but then there is no way of going back and removing the effect and redoing (unless you keep a copy of the original ready at hand).

You may move the mirror text (to the right) to see whether you get a(n even) better visual fit.

Edit: Cross posting.

I believe the mirroring (without adjustment) and hiding the mirror part is the closest you can get to a more automated way, possibly running (part of) it as an Action/Script. Maybe Kurt or Carlos or Theunis has a suggestion, or you can ask over here,

Illustrator Scripting

As you have seen, the difference in shape at the ends (in most cases) will call for an intervention, so something has to be done.

Add a helper object on the right side.

Then warp.

Then expand and delete the helper object.

Of course Illustrator uses the bounding box to warp this, because it cannot judge anything else.