I don't feel that way. I will go this far. The negative emotion from having to swap out plants because they are technically not shrubs is far worse than the positive emotion I get from having nice parks and neighbors who have nice grass.

I get that, HOAs wouldn’t survive without people like you, I think the US wouldn’t be what it is either. The feeling I get from having all so manicured is like I’m living in a fake world with no creativity, where everything is made of the same cookie cutter, where a small group dictates minuscule details like what blinds you can have or what plants. It feels very oppressive and constricting to me.

Not that it matters, but just for conversation's sake I value my HOA primarily for property value reasons. Once my kids are out of school and I don't care about things like school zones or parks I will be moving to more rural areas without an HOA for similar reasons to why you dislike HOAs so much.

It’s odd that in my area non HOA areas have grown in price more than the gated cookie cutter communities. The people with money want out of there and live by the river and be able to have block parties with cookouts without having to be backed by a change.org petition and petty meetings.

But I’ve also seen that in some areas all you have is HOAs because nothing was developed before those communities and whatever is outside can be pretty crappy.