Author here - you nailed it. There's no useful discussing to be had about personal preferences when practically the entire country, notwithstanding a very small

Author here - you nailed it. There's no useful discussing to be had about personal preferences when practically the entire country, notwithstanding a very small handful of places, is built as described in the artifice. And as prevailing zoning laws, building rules and perverse government incentives currently stand, it is either outright illegal or massively uneconomical (thanks to the distortions) to build anything but Los Angeles. When we have the option for urban living, then we can talk about who wants to live where. As it stands, the usual highway schlock is all the vast majority of us get.