I wandered just a bit south on a whim with no destination and as you go even a bit past the first major city the roads are empty, people just leave the highway whenever, the city streets are dirt with massive pits, and the small towns can resemble permanent homeless camps with fences cobbled together from box springs. The experience feels quite lawless (or at least significantly different enforcement) than a drive at random in the United States.

I know the whole country is not like that, but it is not a vacation spot I would go without a plan unlike the US where you can do a cross country drive and rely there will be services almost everywhere.

bollocks. 10km from the border its going to look and sound pretty gringo -- since thats who its catering too -- but leave the tourist areas and its not the same at all.

plus only ~30% of LA is hispanic, which is roughly akin to all of the US, regardless of what Latin country or area they're from. peruvians ain't mexican, amigo.

Some parts of Tijuana are similar to some parts of San Diego but for the most part no

A huge portion of socal is Hispanic but the culture overall is more American than Mexican IMO