The amount of suffering people go through because of noise is pretty insane (some more than others). The most common situation I see in Europe is living in poorly insulated apartments with neighbors who act like they're in a pub 24/7.

Put an 8cm thick rockwool under your ceiling and you are 90% sound insulated. The rest is 5cm at neighbouring walls.

Yep. For contrast, I loved the elbow room in US flyover country.