First of all, not having the energy to wait for an elevator (!!!) and walk across roads to get to a park sounds like depression. I hope that it was checked out. Or hey, maybe it was just the living circumstances but usually it's a complex thing, having to do with loneliness and general life issues.
Secondly, urban environments are very varied outside the US. In Europe the most frequent apartment buildings are mid rises, 4-6 stories high, which can make for incredible environments.
Shops everywhere, life everywhere. People going about their business, easy access to everything.
Thirdly, that "touch grass" argument is ridiculous, even in the US. 90% of front and backyards I've seen are... just grass. I don't know if it's due to people or HOA being cheap or regulations, but there's a dearth of shrubs, hedges, trees, general greenery. You know, the type of green stuff that makes life worth living, not just sterile, manicured lawns. And those are exactly the things that aren't missing in most urban parks. Yes, you have to share the space, and that's fine. In most places not overrun by homeless people and drug addicts (much bigger problems in the US than in most other developed countries), parks are just lovely.
And in many places multiple apartment buildings share the same common backyard, which is a lot larger than what a single family home in a suburb will have, and that will be a semi-private mini park, just for residents.
Behaving like it's crazy for people to want to live in apartments, globally, is truly sad.
Apartments don't require as much maintenance. They can offer nicer views, especially higher up. They are generally in walkable and bikeable areas with easy access to everything... The benefits are innumerable, especially for kids or the elderly.
Edit: Oh, North America is particularly dastardly, for a developed region, in creating urban hell landscapes. I tried walking from the Las Vegas Strip to Downtown Las Vegas. I took the monorail to the end and then figured I'd walk the remaining distance, which is not huge (something like 4km). I turned around after about 20 minutes, even though the weather was awesome. It's incredibly how such wealth can create environment were an average person outside of a car is constantly under assault from noise, pollution, bad sidewalks full of debris, glass, etc. and the environment is so barren and devoid of beauty.