Having grown up in a thinly populated area and spent most of my adult life in a heavily populated area, I think that fewer is better.
Yet you continue to live in that heavily populated area while there are plenty of thinly populated areas available.
Maybe what’s keeping you in the heavily populated area is a product of that very population.
“Having grown up in a thinly populated area and spent most of my adult life in a heavily populated area, I think that fewer is better.”
Being an off-the-chart introvert I wholeheartedly agree.