It depends on the specific years and places, but cities have almost always been net negative on human life. In that they import people from the countryside due to heightened death rates in crammed 'urban' areas. Rural life has had a history of being 'clearer' and healthier as a result of lower density. Though the ravages of diseases tend to affect less populated areas worse as the inhabitants are not as immune to a variety of diseases, however this is debated. The rise of Romanticism / countryside-escape and the Industrial Revolution occur at the same time for the reasons the OP mentioned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

This is way too rosy about peasant agriculture and rural life in peasant societies. People primarily leave the countryside because they are literally starving to death there, and can’t get jobs. After moving to the city, people have access to more steady/reliable income and food supply, more material goods, more education, etc.

Even though conditions are often dangerous and unpleasant, they are nonetheless an improvement, and people go back to their villages and encourage their friends to follow along.