I've never wanted to live 2 hours from a list of interesting places. I don't have 4 spare hours to roundtrip somewhere.
I live and work and play and am raising my family on Manhattan Island, where I am *minutes* by *foot* from the finest cultural / dining / entertainment experiences on the planet.
Yes, it is frightfully expensive, and a tax/nannystate nightmare, but we all make tradeoffs.
Yeah, the upsides of Manhattan living are pretty cool. I need trees and grass and space and quiet, so I trade off and get the longer drives.