FWIW, in between, there are also a lot of small towns that are only "semi-rural": short distance from nature and the outdoors, reasonable access to essential he

FWIW, in between, there are also a lot of small towns that are only "semi-rural": short distance from nature and the outdoors, reasonable access to essential healthcare, entertainment, groceries, etc., but without the crazy traffic, costs, and crime of the big cities. You can easily get internet access (cable, satellite, fiber sometimes), things aren't quite as expensive as the metro areas (though not cheap by rural standards either), and there's still a fair amount of diversity (of culture/thought/politics/food/etc.). Problem is, these towns tend to have a limited lifespan, often being undiscovered gems for a few decades, and then either they turn into ghost towns or they get too popular and rapidly gentrified and become unaffordable (like Boulder, CO). It would be a fun GIS problem to identify the next up-and-coming town like this and move there a few years before it really explodes. Then do it again for the next one, etc. You'd have a great quality of life and also probably make a fortune flipping houses a decade later. Assuming you can stay remote, of course... but the same man making flying internet hates it when his minions aren't in their cages.