Australia

You seem to be conflating both the inner city and the current car-dependent sprawling suburbia, and in so doing you're contrasting car-dependent suburbia with rural living. But my entire point is to contrast the difference between low density living (whether it's rural or suburban sprawl) with the higher density that city living offers.

The thing is, when you increase density it becomes a lot easier to put in place better public transport routes. Our current poor transport networks are partly the result of how inefficient it is to deliver public transport to low density environments. When things are closer together, it also puts more things within range to cycle places, which is absolutely perfect for kids and teens. Statistically, kids in the famously dense and cyclable Netherlands are the happiest in the world.

When you've got reasonable density and eyes on the ground, and lack that soulless feeling of large stroads they have to walk or ride along, people feel safer letting their kids walk or ride to go play with friends or get to school or to sports clubs.