People still live near infrastructure (although requirements change)

Maybe 1000 years ago, they probably lived near a port, water source and source of food.

Nowadays we have efficient transport with semis and container ships, but I would imagine that there are still things like say power infrastructure, sources of commerce and schools and even internet that make living practical and affordable.

I'll bet as we can do distributed living practically (PV+batteries, wells/septic , starlink and amazon) that maybe more things are possible.