I agree with you 100%. What drove me to live there was career, both mine and my husband's. We were both involved with a lot of interesting experiences at work and I don't regret it But the commuting, the traffic, the pace of life eventually gets to you. Plus, it is a pretty expensive place to live. Most of the people there are actually from somewhere else, and leave once they retire to go where the cost of living is less. The pay is higher there too, so you work and save your money, so you can move here and afford to live on the lake. :-)
About 5 years ago, I went back up to visit and I could not believe all the changes that had taken place in just 5 years - I hardly recognize where I had lived for all those years. I did notice that people didn't smile a lot and when I would greet them with a simple "good morning" they would give me the look of "why are you talking to me?". (I guess I didn't realize how Alabama I had become).