I lived in Houston, (Museum District/Third Ward/Whatever you want to call it), for a good long time. (Three or four hurricanes.) I actually loved it. That said, I would not say, at all, that it beats the valley for QoL. Setting that expectation up in peoples' minds just leads to disappointment. And it's the genesis of a lot of the bad stories we hear about peoples' experiences in Texas on a daily basis.
If you have realistic expectations, and subscribe to the "When in Rome..." philosophy, you will find a lot of fun things and fun people in Houston. You will have a really good time. If you come with the expectation and demand of a great QoL, a QoL that rivals San Fran, or Boston, or Chicago, etc, you're likely to be disagreeably surprised.
We need to start measuring cities on their own merits. Measuring cities against the bar set by what are really becoming early stage city-states is a little unfair. Houston is great. Omaha is AWESOME. Minneapolis is a blast. Don't even get me started on how awesome places like Charlotte or Madison can be.
But you have to be open to what's there, and not go there looking for everything you had in San Fran. You do that in Houston, and you'll just be disappointed, and then the yearly floods will come, and you'll be pissed off on top of being disappointed. But if you look out your window after the storm, you'll probably see everyone on your block out grilling! (May as well get rid of any meat in your fridge by grilling it, because you don't know when the power will come back on!) I mean, it really can be a blast! Seriously, Just do without the wifi for a few days. (Or weeks if it was a hurricane.) You'll be happy you did.