Here's the thing. We already have towns spread everywhere--just like in pretty much every country in the world. The US is a large country. I live in an exurban town that's adjacent to a couple of older/smaller manufacturing cities within an hour of a major tech metropolis (though my office is actually much closer). I have septic, pay for water, pay for trash pickup, etc. And, not that I object (as I go into the city a fair bit), but a lot of my taxes seem to go into urban infrastructure projects.

It's not black and white. It's not central Manhattan and the middle of Montana.

[ADDED: And, by the way, my town was founded in 1653. It's not some recent suburban sprawl addition.]