Speaking for myself, absolutely not. The amount of things available in cities compared to rural areas is immense. I’ve lived in both.
Theater, music venues, libraries, restaurants, beer gardens, good food markets, schools. I have all of this writhing walking and biking distance. You don’t get that in rural areas without needing a car.
They SHOULD be better but... no.
Then again my urban experience is Minneapolis St Paul, possibly the most bike-able city outside of winter I've seen.
It's certainly not as bleak as you describe.
as for alternative roads, that really depends. generally from my experience between two neighboring villages there tends to be only one road, unless you want to make a big detour. sometimes alternate roads exist when and old main road is replaced with a new one on a different route.