This is a cultural issue. As someone who grew up in a Soviet megacity, and visited American suburbia on couple of occasion, I felt miserable in suburbs, like dying from boredom.
Your side lost for a reason though. It's a dehumanizing way to live and your people eventually figured that out and rebelled against it.
Agree some suburbs are deserts but we have a lot of towns that are walkable while also giving the very human experience of having living space and personal space and nature and access to a city and all the things that make life nice.
You went to a very particular kind of suburb. There are lots of good sized suburban cities in the US, especially in the west, which aren't boring in the slightest.
I grew up in some of the densest Asian megacities. Chicago isn't like that, sure, but if you think that makes Chicago a boring place to be, I'm afraid you have very peculiar tastes that won't translate for the majority of the population.
