We bought an EV 1.5 years ago. Yes, hearing gas vehicles start up around you is definitely a thing, although where I am I think it's mostly not hybrids but cars equipped with start/stop feature that shuts off the engine at stop lights. You can also hear if someone punches the throttle around you - even at freeway speeds you'll hear their engine rev up as the transmission shifts, and if you want to you can put your foot down and accelerate before all that shifting is done and before they've even begun to accelerate.
Regarding fuel costs - it's much cheaper to operate our EV than a comparable hybrid but this absolutely relies on access to a home charger and is dependent on local gas and electricity prices. A comparable hybrid might get 35 mpg, we get around 2.5 miles/kWh (these are minivans) - and so our breakeven point in electricity cost (using $4.50/gallon gas cost) is $0.32/kWh. In my area, electricity is fairly cheap, around $0.14/kWh and I use a plan that lets me pay $0.07/kWh at night when I charge. That's offset by me paying slightly more for other things in the day so my effective cost might be closer to $0.10/kWh, which is still 1/3 of the breakeven point. On long road trips I will likely pay above that but that only happens a few times a year.
Our experience on long highway trips, which practically tend to be repeated cycles of 2 hours of driving and 20 minutes of charging is that they have been more comfortable and we felt better at the end of the trip despite it taking longer door-to-door. This is based on a couple 1400 mile round trips, one w/ 2 people in the vehicle and another w/ 4 and a full load of stuff.
The EV experience is superior to ICE or hybrid. Smooth, silent, quick, you can run the A/C in your garage w/o stinking up the place. The flip side to range anxiety (which is a real thing at first but goes away) is that our EV is always ready to go in the morning and I never end up smelling like gasoline. Yes, my lawn mower is battery powered too.
Given how Americans have not prioritized running costs in vehicle purchases in the past and trucks/SUVs heavily outsell cheap economy cars, I think as more folks see how good the experience is, they'll buy EVs over gas cars even without understanding the math above.