I'm not going to argue with you - living as we are car-free now in a walkable city it's unthinkable for me. But when I was in America, with a car and a baby, it made perfect sense. There were fewer viable third spaces (aside from parks, which is harder for an infant on a rainy day), and just about every viable third space (where we were) was built around car infrastructure.
All that to say you're not quite wrong, but there's nuance and the solutions are necessarily political.
Hehehe I hear you. Took drivers ed in Manhattan and 30 years of 3 to 4 hrs of public transit. Honda at a mall is like rolling coal for me and I'm relishing it lol
Edit: TBH as much as I'm being cute, malls don't make me hate my life as much now that they're empty