You're getting a lot of very bad comments in opposition, which is unfortunate.
A lot of people have no trouble being clear-eyed about the downsides for big cities -- expensive, crowded, lots of traffic, can be hyper-competitive, people are ruder or more indifferent, child unfriendly, more hostility to conservatism/religiosity, etc. -- but get offended when someone is equally clear-eyed about rural areas. I'm guessing that's because they interpret it as "punching down".
There may be more or more serious downsides to rural areas, of course; after all, they are gradually losing people to urban areas, people are voting with their feet. It would be bizarre if that were occurring and there weren't more serious downsides to the rural areas.
I don't think the parent comment is getting bad comments in opposition because people aren't "clear-eyed about rural areas". I think it's more likely because the parent comment lists all of the attributes of urban areas in a positive tone and all the attributes of a rural area in a negative tone. I think most people are well balanced in their opinions on urban vs. rural life, and realize there are pros and cons to both. It would have been nice if the parent comment listed a well balanced opinion instead of a heavily one sided opinion.
And maybe I'm misinterpreting the parent comment as well and I feel like the comments about rural areas were negative because of my bias. That could be the case, but I'm inclined to believe that the parent comment was quite biased in favor of urban areas.
It's a word of caution about rural areas. If you were cautioning someone about moving from a farm to the big city, you'd do the same thing with mostly listing negatives of big cities. I see this all the time in discussion of FAANG and the big tech hubs, people talking about the various downsides (which, to be sure, are many).
And if you look at the comments in response, a lot of them are obviously offended and throwing out misinformation and straw men. They're very bad comments from people either not thinking clearly or arguing disingenuously.
A lot of people have no trouble being clear-eyed about the downsides for big cities -- expensive, crowded, lots of traffic, can be hyper-competitive, people are ruder or more indifferent, child unfriendly, more hostility to conservatism/religiosity, etc. -- but get offended when someone is equally clear-eyed about rural areas. I'm guessing that's because they interpret it as "punching down".
There may be more or more serious downsides to rural areas, of course; after all, they are gradually losing people to urban areas, people are voting with their feet. It would be bizarre if that were occurring and there weren't more serious downsides to the rural areas.