Would you be ok with a strip club and liquor store next to a elementary school? I wouldn't, and appreciate zoning laws for that reason.
Simply blaming NIMYism feels like lazy analysis. Every community is different.. how, why, and where things are built is far too complex to explain w/one word.
There is a link between the availability of liquor stores and fast food restaurants near school, and students consuming unhealthy levels of both. (For liquor you just pay some random in the street to buy for you, or you find a store that doesn’t ID). As with many things in life, if you make something convenient, people will use it more.
As a result fast food restaurants and off licences are generally restricted from be built near schools, and for fast food restaurants, also delivering to schools.
Obviously elementary school children are probably to young to be influenced by either, the but the above applies for older age groups.
I don’t think strict zoning is the right approach to solve issues like this, it’s an extremely crude tool for urban planning. But specific, evidence backed (I.e. there’s strong evidence that co-locating these buildings have significant negative impacts on local populations), restrictions on what types of buildings can co-exist seems reasonable.
Not in your backyard indeed. Others don't want multi-family low-income housing in their neighborhood either for presumably similar reasons.