As far as I know the closest city with public transport counts 100k residents, but there are 60 smaller towns in my province alone.
People forget that European history before cars has lead to so many small accessible paths that simply do not exist in many American or Australian places. I know what rural Europe looks like. But you seem to have no idea what rural on other continents looks like.
You may not need car daily, but you definitely need it at least weekly.
I am not working in trades, don't live rural and I dont have kids. In that case I would get an electric bike. The rest I do. Heck, I have transported my SUP and a week of resources over 4km of rural road to get around rapids in a Swedish National Park. In one go in an hour because it was getting close to sun set and I had fallen in at the rapid before. My partner would like me less if I had a car.