There’s a middle ground. I’m in a true small city of 10K and I love it. The city is all of 10 miles square. It has all the basics movie theater, most chains, etc. The city isn’t walkable, but it is bikeable and I’ve found that to be good enough. I grew up in a city like this and I wanted that for my kid. We still drive into the local metro maybe once a month, but I don’t ever need to go into the metro for basics.