Then I realized it's probably rose colored glasses, because I was younger and more social then - going out to lunch, bars after work, joking around.
I think today, older and married, I'd be a bit grumpier and less social, so probably wouldn't enjoy it much at all.
If you could hop on a bike/trolly/bus/train/walk to work (to multiple employers) in 10 minutes consistently, then this would not be a discussion.
Which is impossible without density, so in the end, the discussion is about how densely we want to live vs how spread out we want to live.
I find the younger generation antisocial to detriment, but maybe that's the old guy talking. So I think a lot of the folks missing it are of my ilk. Kinda how some guys miss playing high school football and such. I didn't, so my 'glory days' were in the office, and I admit as much.