There are plenty of people who want to do basically anything you can imagine.

Statistically, we are as a society, drifting closer to urban cores. I too dream of buying 50 acres in the midwest for about 100k or so - so don't get me wrong I get the appeal. It's just more or less not what is happening.

> And one could reasonably describe the whole trend of suburbanization as people moving to the middle of nowhere,

I disagree with this. Suburbanization is a way for people to live close to urban centers with the employment prospects (although with a commute, contributing to congestion, emissions), without the benefits (and negatives) of living in an urban core. I have never been to a suburb that is in the middle of nowhere...if it was it wouldn't be sub-urban.

A lot of the Southwest directly contradicts your point: huge, almost endless tracts of suburbia with no urban core whatsoever. Phoenix (4.7MM people in the metro area, virtually no downtown) is the quintessential example.

I've never really been to the Southwest so that would be something I haven't experienced. It sounds a lot different than the suburbia I am accustomed to in other parts of the country.

For what it’s worth there are plenty of jobs in Phoenix. They’re just dispersed throughout the giant mass of suburbs rather than being located “downtown”.