Look if you're out in the middle of nowhere with acres of your own land and the decisions you make with your property don't affect anyone else, yeah do what you want. However, in a neighborhood where one person's actions on his or her property can affect the value of all the houses around, you need someone to reign silly shit in. Like if you like where you're living and don't ever plan on moving, then I guess shit doesn't matter for you. But I plan on moving in the next 5 years, so no I don't want my neighbor randomly painting his house lime green or putting a bunch of bullshit in his yard that will drive the price of my house down when I try to sell. No, I don't want my neighbor thinking he can treat the public sidewalk in front of his year like a club let out and amassing people there because that shit affects the chances of me being able to sell my house. That's shit that I literally have to deal with now. Add to that niggas letting their friends drop their cars off and use up all the guest parking to store cars for months at a time. Our HOA started towing and ended that shit. When dudes tried to start selling drugs in front of the neighborhood, the HOA was the one that got the cops involved and ran them off. When cats wanted to treat the front of our neighborhood like a club letout and start massing up every night, the HOA put up the no trespassing signs and cameras that caught them in the action of some of the dirt they were doing and got the out of there.
I ain't saying all HOAs are good, but when you're dealing with unruly neighbors that don't respect the people around them, it's either the HOA gets at them or you get at them and the latter choice could end much worse for everyone.