Also, sure, poor people in non-urbanized, less technologically advanced situations are happier but at what trade-offs?

I grew up in a small oilfield town. I, fortunately, managed to escape but I can tell you with no equivocation that "happy" is not an adjective I'd use to describe the majority of the population of that place.

Same here in a tiny rural fishing community, many people here are not happy once you get below the surface of faking it. “Happy” is one of the last words I’d use to describe many of the folks here.

I did escape, but got sucked back in.

There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions."

For this millenial, stuff is cheap. Space to put stuff is expensive. It is far too easy to get all the stuff you'd ever want, but unless you can afford to live in a giant ranch-house, the clutter will drive you mad. So yeah, getting rid of things makes me very happy.