Those areas aren't better to live in. They're just older parts of older towns so they don't have much wiggle room. The wiggle room was amazing for the more modern countries, except now we wiggle in a different direction too. An equal middle can be seen in Asian cities in Korea and China. They mix high density with high quality of life and little self sacrificing.
Neither US or Europe do living areas well due to their historical constraints.
It's subjective but many of us strongly disagree.
And, of course, the fact that the areas you say "aren't better to live in" also tend to be extremely expensive doesn't make a lot of sense.
Except for gates communities, living cost is mostly a function of closeness to high paying jobs.
I don't think that counters what I wrote? One of the benefits of higher density is having more high paying jobs nearby.