I'd say HOAs are more like communism or even dictatorship. Though I wonder if places like China or Russia are even that strict on what you can do on your property. I feel it's a bit more wild west in that respect. But they can also come and take your house at a moment's notice, like what happened in Sochi when they were setting up the olympics. Imagine being told you have 5 minutes to vacate everyone from your house and there's a bulldozer sitting there for you to watch them bulldoze everything in your life away.
Never understood the obsession with property value, I paid whatever I was willing to pay at the time I bought my house. If the value goes down, oh well. It would be nice if the taxes would go down with it too actually... but that's probably wishful thinking. If someone has weeds or cars on the lawn I couldn't care less as long as it does not start to actually affect me, like fumes or trash coming on my side. Any vegetation that comes on my side I have the right to cut as I see fit, so I will just deal with it. I may point and laugh at how ridiculous their lawn looks, but that should be their right if they don't want to maintain it.
Been looking for land in an unorganized township myself though to build an off grid homestead, even in the city there's so many petty rules, and with unorganized you can pretty much do what you want. No permits or any of that BS either. I just want to be able to build what I want, how I want, and do what I want. True freedom. With this coronavirus it makes me wish I was already living mostly off grid tbh. A tad less worry when you're already mostly self sufficient.