Did you live in a cheap wood-frame (aka Fire’s Favourite Food) apartment where all the noises echo in the walls and then in our heads?

Yup, and that's been just about the only thing available. I'm sure that some high end places will be decently soundproofed; but, about that "Unless you can continue to be rich" bit, projecting much? Honestly, nothing about a city is attractive to me. I do recognize that we need a lot more mid and high density housing in the cities. And those cities need proper, modern transportation networks and to kick cars out of the city centers. I just have zero desire to live in one. I have a nice little home, out in the sticks, and have every intention of dying out here. I work remotely, so I don't even have to drive in for that. At best, I come play tourist from time to time and that's all the city I want in my life. Y'all can keep them and quit trying to force everyone to live the life you want.

As for demographic issues, birth rates in the US are below replacement level. It's only via immigration that our population is growing. And that's probably a good thing, as a shrinking population has a lot of negative economic consequences. But, we have plenty of room for both people and agriculture. We just waste a lot of it on feed crops and ethanol production.