Comment by AngryData

There are certainly a lot of people like you describe, but there also many "hippy" types that just like to grow plants or DIY makers. Often they have to do more with less, but cheap land can give people the freedom to do stuff like loud metal working or space to repair older equipment for cheap or grow large gardens.

One of the biggest problems though is just the poverty, options are limited and wages are shit and like you mentioned innovations don't make their way into rural areas until like 10+ years later. And if you don't move away to a big city the majority of people are never going to make a lot of money and will often be ignored for most everything except as a source of revenue for podunk courts and cops. Of the highly intelligent and aspirational few that are left, most end up severely stifled by lack of financial opportunity even if they are doing great work because most of their potential customer base are poor too.