It reminds me of the forest passage concept described by Ernst Jünger.

He was writing about sovereignty within one's own consciousness and I'm not referencing this particular context in this case (although they probably are related) but more generally how "the hinterlands" provide a place away from the beam of focus that a society maintains.

Almost by definition these places feel forgotten but once you get over the unnerving sense of separation and isolation from everything, your imagination seems to recover some of its creativity. That creativity then fills in the gaps visually to create an aesthetically pleasing setting even if it didn't feel that way at first.

IME it’s not just the quiet and calmness. There’s few children and families (mostly elderly folks), what few people there are mostly keep to themselves and won’t initiate conversation with you, and abandoned places are left to degrade without being vandalized or littered with trash. There are roads and shrines that are still maintained but most likely empty when you visit. There’s nothing, and very little even “regular abandoned stuff” like broken glass or boarded up windows, to make you feel on-edge or unsafe.