Half of those places aren’t really cities, it would be more interesting to see how actual cities of significant size rank on those scales. The place I live is a city in legal terms but the population is barely 5,000. I think of it as a town or a glorified village. It’s not really a city.
I wonder how affordable St George Utah and surrounding area might be, it’s certainly a far more attractive urban environment than most nowadays. I would prefer to live in a smaller place but if I wanted to move to a decent American city I would seriously look at places like that. Maybe Colorado Springs is a contender, I have not been there for a long time. When they list places as small as Richmond, Indiana that makes it apples and oranges really, the only real city I see in that list is Oklahoma City.
I think most are affordable because they are pretty much in tornado ally. It’s risky living there. Of course, most places have some sort of weather risk.