I lived in Northern Arizona for many years. I had about 10 acres and a nice large house. We were far enough away from town that no one cared what you did with your property. That's a good thing and bad thing. But, we also had no city services. We had to haul our own water, had our own water pump, ran on propane, arranged for trash pickup, and had to get our mail in town. It was fine for years. We had lots of horses and dogs, and the space to keep them. The hauled water thing takes a bit to get use to, but it's not that bad. I found the biggest headache was maintaining the water pump system. And, of course, if the power goes out, you have no water pressure. So you always need to have a generator (and gas) handy to power the pump.
When we decided to move to Michigan, we contacted a realtor in Michigan and listed several requirements. They included: no propane, must have city water, city sewers/trash pickup, mail delivery, and no HOA. Plus, we weren't looking for lots of property. One acre maximum. It took a careful search, but it was not that difficult to fulfill all of the requirements. We are now in a nice house on 3/4 acres in a neighborhood where everyone seems to take care of their houses and lawns. The first thing I did, once we moved in, was put up my weather station, my 43' vertical, with guy ropes, and a small 2 Meter Yagi on a 20' mast (with rotator). Overall, it is a very clean install and difficult to notice. The only one that noticed my antennas was the neighbor directly behind me. And they were just curious. Never had an interference issue.
Oh, we bought our Michigan house right at the start of of the Covid restrictions so there were no in-person house tours. We weren't able to fly there anyway. We did get a virtual tour and purchased the house sight unseen. Overall, that worked out well.
If you want to live in a HOA controlled neighborhood, that is your choice. But you can find nice areas that are not HOA controlled, relatively easily.