Overall a great answer, but I'm not so sure of #3. Yes, there are people who want big cities to fail, but AFAICT not many of them are rural themselves. They're in smaller cities or outer suburbs ("exurbs") of big ones. They play to a rural image or ethos, but typically neither know nor care about anyone truly living a rural life.

Also (6) higher level/quality of municipal services, because those are (mostly) funded from local taxes. This is most obvious in schools but you can also see it in the personnel, equipment, and training of the local police and fire departments, the number and maintenance level of parks, etc.