I didn't come by my assessment by reading about Houston and latching onto someone else's observations. I lived in Houston, west of HWY6 for 5 years before buying a place out northwest on 290 and commuting from there for 5 more years.
Then, after moving up near FtWorth and just when I thought I was done with it for good, I ended up commuting weekly to Houston for 18 more years. I saw and had the opportunity to enjoy all the interstate construction on I-10, 45 towards Galveston, 59, 610 loop, Grand Parkway, Beltway 8, and finally 290. It has been in a state of constant change down there. Some changes improved things, others appear to be boondoggles.
I totally agree on the people and the food. I'm in the O&G industry so I had the opportunity to work with people from every continent including a guy who spent a season in Antarctica. Culture, arts, like you say is first class.
Since I watched many of those subdivisions being built, especially on the southwest to northwest side of the city, I am less impressed by the housing. My family has been in the building business since the Depression and I grew up on job sites. I would be pretty persnickety about what and where I bought. When I first moved there, and likely when you did too, the Katy Prairie was a nesting area for migratory geese and ducks. Now they have lost all that so that developers could build huge subdivisions in the old rice paddies and interrupt rainwater drainage that formerly prevented a large part of the major flooding in Houston proper. I spent days down there after Harvey trying to help people who had lost all their stuff.
Basically, I come by my overall negative impression of Houston honestly. We don't have to agree about everything and indeed we don't. That won't change my assessment though since that is based entirely on my own experiences and observations.