Ecology

An HOA has 3 jobs: keep people safe (or minimize liability), maintain property value, and represent a block of people for shared services. They also come in all shapes, sizes, and price points.

It's easy to see the HOA as the bad guy here (because they are), but the "why" is important. Two things here stand out to me:

Thing 1: This HOA doesn't appear to have a management company--that's a win, they are expensive and overzealous--and if it's like mine it's "live and let live" until someone complains. Here someone did. If you don't like something in your HOA COMPLAIN ABOUT IT in writing and something is likely to happen.

Thing 2: People also don't want to live by things they don't want to look at all the time, and that's why you read the covenants. Do you want to live next to the guy that has a trailer parked in his yard and 4 cars up on cinder blocks? What about someone with literal trash in front of their porch in bags? Construction materials? Dumpsters? The lines are different for everyone, but what strikes me is this line: he only concession they had to make ... was to keep their garden within a six-foot setback from the front property line and three feet from the neighbor's, the latter of which they'd already done. These guys have a cool (but sprawling) pollenator garden in front of their house apparently right up to the sidewalk. If you're the neighbor and you don't like it, I can see how that feels pretty inconsiderate. Use your back yard and then who gives half a shit as long as your yard doesn't drop fruit on your neighbor's yard.

I currently sit on an HOA board, and our active policy is 1) we want to keep the lights on, 2) we don't want to get mixed up in enforcement, and 3) we don't want anyone on the board who WANTS to be on the board. If you live in a neighborhood with an HOA and you don't like it, run for a position. It is absolutely necessary and equally thankless, but if you're just along for the ride you get what you get. Be on the board, change the bylaws and covenants, ???, profit.

And now I will collect my downvotes:

If you want to live in an unkempt meadow, go buy a house in an unkempt meadow. I have a whole area of my back yard that I let do what it wants because I like wildflowers and bees and birds and frogs, and ALSO front garden that is meticulously landscaped. It's really easy to be into "rewilding" because it gives you an excuse to do literally nothing but go inside and doomscroll lemmy. Not caring for your property and complaining when other people don't like it is some entitled bullshit that is not the HOA's fault. It sounds like these people had a pretty well kept garden, your yard that you don't ever mow / weed / maintain is not that.