HoA areas are voluntary, you don't have to live in them. I wish we had that kind of thing in New Zealand that I could voluntarily buy into. I don't see anything wrong with having high standards where you live.
For most of the west coast it is only voluntary if you are in the 1% who are rich enough to be selective about housing. The rest are lucky to find someplace they can afford that is within reasonable distance to their jobs at all, and all new development is covered by HOAs so the already small percentage of housing not covered by HOA decreases every year.