I mean, I also get obsessed with their horror when, after coming from abroad, I am back at my American suburb. All this mandatory front yard and setbacks that must be lawn, even though nobody in the entire subdivision seems to use said front lawn, ever. It's not the grass itself, but the utter waste of space, pushing any chance of walkability away, as it's ultimately increasing the distances to anywhere. It's not so different from the typical giant parking lot that is never half full.

When you prefer a better environment, but said better environment means having to at least leave the state... yeah, strong feelings seem warranted to me.

Is there a state that has absolutely no high-density areas? I’d think every city over 200K people would have such sections, and probably most that were over 100K.