I mean, come on. Are they shocked? Or is this how the townies want it? My impression is that quite a lot of the "natives" who think of themselves as "True Bostonians(TM)" (ie: not just those of us who've lived here for years, married someone raised here, and own property here) want this place to be the world's most populous (but rather restrictive) college town.
Why would they want more people around to ruin their city by walking around doing things? Come, spend your money like a tourist, fuel their businesses, get your degree if you're one of those workaholic nerds, and get the fuck back out. You can come back eventually if you manage to make the tenure track!
Massachusetts is overtly hostile to anyone who does not step in line the way a good well behaved cog in the machine should. Making it hard for people to stay out late and get drunk is just a specific instance of that.
When you picture the state as being run by a committee of stodgy puritanical authoritarians who live in Lincoln and Lexington it all makes sense.
Why not just say Haifa?
It makes me miss the random industrial city in another country I lived in for my MSc. Admittedly, that's one of my favorite cities period, but it had night-owl bus lines, including BRT. You could go out at 20:30, stay out until 04:30, and get home at 5:45.