If you don't own a house there yet, you can't join the board. So you're proposing that I buy a house with HOA rules that I abhor, and then try to get the rules changed from within.

This is not a smart strategy.

That would harm my neighbors' property values, in their estimation.

It's very hard to change major rules because they require majority votes but a quorum is usually impossible because most people don't care enough to change the status quo.