The reason why is scaling of infastructure. It is cheaper to provide services for 1000 in one skyscrapper than 1000 in a small town. Even if we had FTL communication for full cyberpunk "jack in robot bodies remotely" those benefits would remain. It is true that there are also costs to the arrangement but cities are here to stay and growing even.
Add in doctors and other specialized labor which is important but thankfully rarer in need and have a larger "patient footprint".
That small towns are mostly dying is no accident or sinister conspiracy - they are victims of not being able to compete with scale barring some niches like say tourist towns.
The only implausible escape from cities as a situation involve not only teleportation but cheap teleportation which effectively scribbles over many spatial constraints.
Add in doctors and other specialized labor which is important but thankfully rarer in need and have a larger "patient footprint".
That small towns are mostly dying is no accident or sinister conspiracy - they are victims of not being able to compete with scale barring some niches like say tourist towns.
The only implausible escape from cities as a situation involve not only teleportation but cheap teleportation which effectively scribbles over many spatial constraints.