The problem is the massive and often very noisy tourism. Good luck trying to concentrate to make a deadline in Carnaval or in a small apartment in front of the beach. If you choose the zone carefully, neither too isolated nor to close to the hot-turism spots, could work.
Food is cheap, rental vary from very expensive to relatively cheap. Life can be cheap except if you need to exit often from the islands and take a fly, or when need to buy a new car (must be imported and there is only a single guy in the island that can sell you this brand), or need something special.
Tourism isn't really a problem because the tourists stick to the resorts. The upside of a flourishing tourist industry is that you can get dirt cheap flights from all over Europe.
I've spent a lot of time in Tenerife. Santa Cruz, in the North, is a lovely city. The weather is pleasant all year round, beaches nearby, the people are friendly and the food is excellent. Accommodation is cheap and readily (and informally) available, prices are generally lower than mainland Spain so for most Westerners the cost of living is low. Most amenities are there - you've got a cinema, large supermarkets, big brand stores and so on. Getting things online may take a bit longer, I missed Amazon Prime.
You will almost certainly need a car if you plan on doing any kind of travel around the islands. Gas is about the same as most of Europe, perhaps a little lower.
The main downside for foreigners is that outside of the resorts fewer people speak English, but Spanish is easy enough to learn. There is a large ex pat community, though they tend to concentrate in the resorts for obvious reasons.
(Also Carnivals are great! Don't listen to the person who said otherwise. They run for a week or two every year, everyone dresses up, gets drunk and pees wherever they can.)
https://gasoline-germany.com/international.phtml?kontinent=E...
Germany 1.35:
https://gasoline-germany.com/international.phtml?kontinent=E...
Canary Islands 0.89:
https://gasoline-germany.com/international.phtml?kontinent=E...
Generally speaking I would say that overall prices are 10-15% lower than continental Spain and 20-30% lower than other main EU countries (like the mentioned France and Germany).
Of course it depends on where you go and which specific city you want to compare with.
Respect to the car issue, even if its convenient to have one, you can probably go everywere by bus or bike. Islands have a reduced sense of distances and are a small world. Tenerife Island has around 70Km from one point to the other extreme. Other islands are smaller. Some people love it, other go into claustrophobic mode after a while. People often escape by ferry to other islands or fly to the continent some days to reset.
Working remotely seems the only option I guess