I grew up rural (largest town I lived in by far was ~15K) and probably not tbh. I've been living in big cities abt 10 years now, basically my whole adult life.

1. I fucking hate driving
2. I have finally basically entirely escaped small town gossip, I'm not going back, I love my privacy too much
3. It's hard enough to make friends with a big pool of options, let alone like 1000 people who already know your whole family lol

On the plus side, the sense of community can be good in some small towns. It's nice when most of the town shows up to community events - what else are they gonna do, stay home alone on the rare day somethings happening? It felt easier to form community groups like bands etc in that way.

I would consider moving to a smaller city, but probably nothing under 100K, and it would need transit too.