IMO you are both correct - I am a former Yankee and do hold a Board position with the HOA. But this is not a north-south, Republican-Democrat issue. It is an issue of preserving everyone’s home values within an area. While some HOA’s may get a bit carried away, but beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder and there is no accounting for taste - just look around you! But people do have a choice - abide by the agreement you signed when you moved in or don’t live there. BTW, at Christmas time our entire area except for one house is a huge lighted wonderland - no Santas but lots of angels and nativity scenes.
I have served on the community standards committee of my HOA, partly in self-defense. I agree that when a group of people from varied backgrounds live together, somebody has to keep the peace; in our community we have a lot of people from nations that, shall we say, do not have a tradition of private home ownership and careful maintenance, and they would indeed wreck everybody else’s property values. But some of these folks can be extremely petty, and they have a multi-hundred-thousand budget plus a tame law firm to play with, so they act out their resentments, fantasies, prejudices, and class hatreds.
Meticulous as I am about my home, I dream of the day I can escape.