Fortunately in Europe we have a lot of towns and cities built really close together among all the nature, with very high people per square kilometre, with the infrastructure to connect it all, so you can live in the country side, but you can be in the nearest city or small city any where from 10 minutes to 45 minutes, and there is a town at least every 5km away from each other.
e.g I lived 30km away from München, I just took the train every day that ran between it and Nürnberg, it stopped at many towns along the way, one of them was mine, was in and out of München each day quickly for work. Same applies to rest of Germany.
Impossible to live in the middle of nowhere - because everything is readily and closely available, but you can still live around nature nicely, like here in Baden-Württemberg, the Schwäbisch region, many do not want to live in the city of Stuttgart when you can live around the towns surrounded by the hills covered in vineyards and forest, and for cheaper! Stuttgart might only be like 15km away, that is nothing. Cities can also be depressing, I like living away from it where I can just go walk in the forest/woodland etc, it helps with my mental health to get out that way. No car, no problem, bus, trams, trains, we have excellent public transport, even the smallest towns have a bus that runs through it once every hour going towards the city.
Granted, I do not think I could live rural USA-style as you mention, I like living in the country side Europe-style, where if I want, I have easy and quick access to the city/metropolitan area.
