HOAs are benevolent dictatorships. That's supposed to be better than democracy. What could possibly go wrong?
And everyone I've ever heard complain about HOAs has never tried to serve on the board. They're not universally volunteer orgs, but a _lot_ of them are -- which means that if you run, you'll probably be elected, because nobody else wants to deal with that.
HOAs are small governments, with plenty of the problems of larger governments via unhappy but nonparticipatory voters.