This comment sent me on a deep thought train. These places are populated by those that remained, while others left and became the sophisticated urbanites that broadened their horizons. My father was one of those people that left, he left the day after his mother died and joined the military, a common enough story. He was quite the teacher, and it made me the person I am today.

My father often also pointed out those who had also left, who had also done well. There's a selection bias there but I feel like having a mix of both a rural and urban experience is extremely helpful in human development.

Those that stay... well my father was often disappointed to hear how poorly things went out there, but with no family remaining there he never returned. Abused, poorly supported (though sometimes it seemed not for a lack of trying), with an evaporative cooling effect removing the best and brightest as they went to urban areas seeking better lives, and perhaps resentful they didn't get to leave. The crab bucket effect is in full play as well, dragging back down many who climb but don't get out.

In the end the remainers feel not quite unlike a medieval peasant: A prize for nobility to fight over, an accessory to the land they work, and body that can be drafted when someone threatens to take that prize away.