This is how the Florida I bought on ebay looked the day I received it and it's a good example of how different substrates affect the plant.
There are millions of different mixes that will work, this seller used a soggy organic mix which promotes nice leaf growth but tends to rot the roots. The leaves did look beautiful but the roots fell off when I removed the pot. It also looked like they made a few practice cuts before they were able to separate it from the mother plant.
This may not look perfect but it was much better than the first a'ea'e I received in a trade. That was a funny day, I opened the box and picked up the plant and 90% of the rhizome fell off as a mound of slime. I figured it got cooked during shipping but contacted the seller anyways and I was told he had to trade it because it was in bad shape and would have died if he kept it.
The most important thing to understand is that the condition of a plant when it is received is not nearly as important as how it's new home is prepared.
Those partial cuts in the photo needed to be removed completely because they would never heal and would just continue to rot.