Where we live I wouldn't call rural, but its certainly not city either, and not quite a suburb in postwar sense. We live in a real old New England town, kind of a village. 13,000 people on 19 square miles. Where my house is is right in the old village center that has been here since the late 1600s. I can
walk to a drugstore, hardware, auto parts, a real general store, food market, gas stations, a pub, 2 pizza houses, 3 coffee houses, 2 barbers, a bank, 3 liquor stores, 2 churches, a number of farmstands, and so on... Pretty much anything. I have piped natural gas and city water. We get Verizon fiber optic service for TV and 50mbps internet. I can drive to the city... Boston... in 40 minutes on the weekend. My drive to work is 25 minutes, 35 on a bad traffic day. Both the police stations and the fire house are walking distance in an emergency. 1/4 mile from my house there used to be a train station where you could get on a train to Boston and from there to anywhere.
In spite of all that I have what would be a decently sized yard (1/2 acre) compared to a modern cookie cutter planned suburb, and there are even trees between me and my neighbors
But they are close enough I know them all well. I also dont have to deal with HOAs and other annoying city/suburb life crap.
Tradeoff is its not nearly as quiet as living in the country, and we dont much land. My wife and I both dream of buying a farm some day and retiring to the country, but at this stage of our life in our peak career and childraising years where we are makes more sense. She was even asking me if we had room to put a chicken coop in the backyard last week.