HOA are evil and should be illegal. Property rights USED to mean something. Anyone who thinks that neighbors should have any say in YOUR property is a fool.
You are right.
All that is needed is city rules; basic common sense things like grass no higher than 12”, no blocking sidewalks with too large a vehicle, no junk in the yard- put it behind the fence.
I have seen the ultimate example of horrible HOA/COA wars in FL, and they are a way of life for certain embittered and small minded seniors. Just incredible how much energy and legal fees are being consumed in some of these battles. At the same time, most communities do not engage in these sort of scorched earth conflicts. And the architectural controls help preserve minimum property values.
Like anything else, it is a choice along a spectrum of alternatives. Want complete control? Buy 300,000 acres and put your home right in the middle. Want shared amenities like pools and tennis courts, etc., but don't want to bear the entire cost? Buy a condo in a COA or home in an HOA that provides the amenities at a shared fraction of the cost. All deed restricted properties have the limitations and restrictions recorded in the land records of the county in which the property is located. Most states require that a copy be given to potential purchasers in advance of the purchase becoming a binding obligation.
The covenants and deed restrictions are just a form of a contract. Initially between the developer and the initial purchasers of the homes or condos, they run with the land and become a part of every subsequent transaction of those restricted properties, binding all owners.
My favorite Georgia Supreme Court decision is in a contract case, in which one party was attempting to back out of a contract because they hadn't read a critical part of it. The majority opinion, which rejected the plaintiff's request to be let out of the contract they didn't read fully, stated "those with the ability to read, have the obligation to read." So it is with HOA's/COA's - you have the ability to read and consider the restrictions before you buy, if you find them objectionable, simply buy something else.
In the non-HOA neighborhood we had a drug an prostitution house to ours. The house was bought by a landlord after we moved in and he turned it into Section 8 housing. In the year before we sold it there were more that 100 police calls to that house. This bit of news was reported in the local newspaper after one of the residents slashed the throat of another occupant. Sadly, my 10 year old daughter was a witness to the attempted murder.
Druggies, meth cookers and such avoid HOA housing because neighbors have far more control.
We have never had a problem with the 4 HOA properties that we have owned. We read the contracts, the CCandRs, and all 5 past years of HOA board meeting minutes. We were fully prepared and rational in our expectations. We can leave any time by simply locking the door and not showing up for months. We haven't cut grass in 15 years. We love it.
At some point in the development this "property right" is transferred to a trust in the form of a homeowners association, which is charged with enforcement of those covenants in perpetuity.
My property in Oregon has covenants, but they are retained by the survivors of the original owners and there is no HOA. Originally part of a fruit orchard, the original owners desired to limit the kind and number of livestock that future occupants could keep, and also stipulated that the property could only be owned or occupied by members of the Caucasian race. The race restriction was nullified by state law decades ago and the livestock restrictions seemed reasonable to me but they are a part of the title and I must either abide by them (within the limits of superior law), or convince the owners of those restrictions to remove them.