Given how much people switch jobs (by their choice or the company’s), it wouldn’t make sense to try to live near work in all cases.
My parents live in the suburbs of Chicago and both have jobs in the suburbs. But they both commute 40 to 50 miles each way. 2 different suburbs.
Not everyone with this problem lives out in the exurbs.
I’ve moved a few times. But more importantly, if both people and businesses moved back to the cities, we wouldn’t have this problem. I commute 8 miles from my house in St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis. I’m able to have some distance from work, have some space (I have a house with a yard), yet not live in the middle of nowhere and be dependent on my car. I always wonder what people out in the middle of nowhere do when their car breaks down? I just take the bus.