That's a low bar, though. I don't know if the DFW area suburbs are unusually bad, but my experience of them rank among the worst places I've ever been: generically-named suburbs connected via highways to generic mall areas (Kroger's, Walmart, Trader Joe's, or the fancier places with the aforementioned plus generic cinema and restaurants). The closest thing to something non-generic were tiny pockets along the way that had various tacky stores: barber-shop, dollar-store, nail salon, etc.

I found myself baffled at how anyone could be happy living in a place like that, where even going to the generic take-out place meant walking through your shoddily-built air-conditioned house and garage, getting into you air-conditioned car, and driving to a spot that was literally within viewing distance of your generic backyard, but inaccessibly on foot because of the highway in between.

EDIT: I'll add that it was the shoddiness of everything up close that shocked me most. Houses were large, but upon closer inspection everything was just gaudy and off and cheap and ill-fitting, from door handles to sinks to fences. I thought the McMansion thing was an exaggeration, but in the various suburbs and malls I visited, it was standard.

No, about the same. Just a bit more expensive to live there.