Cities have a special kind of "city culture". It's not better or worse than the country side, but it rather depends on your tastes. Some cities have tons of art

Cities have a special kind of "city culture". It's not better or worse than the country side, but it rather depends on your tastes. Some cities have tons of artists, those have better cultures. But many cities don't. As for the services, in smaller or midsize towns they are usually much cheaper at the same quality because they don't have to pay 10s of thousands of USD in rent each month. If you have high standards and only want the high quality services, then the air gets admittedly thin quite quickly. As for educational institutions, it depends on your country. In my home country of Germany, they are pretty comparable between countryside and cities, but I've heard bad stories about the US. In fact, the city states Bremen and Berlin are renown for having low educational standards compared to the remainder of the country. As for opportunities, I agree that this has been the main pull factor for many people. You simply couldn't get a good job in small to mid size towns. But that might change as we transition into the post-Covid world. The core issue is that many middle class people (including non-FAANG-level earning tech folks) simply can't afford life in cities, or the life they can afford includes having roommates while they could easily buy a house with a garden in the countryside with a couple years worth of rent.