Just wanna say, the main thing I’ve gotten from this thread is a reminder of how much I dislike the term/concept of “man cave.”
And if your frost line is deep enough, it makes more sense to just build a basement than to put in a mega-slab of concrete.
As was already mentioned in the OP itself and shown by several other posts, it’s very much a regional thing. I’d generally want to have one if they’re normal in the area, but wouldn’t insist on one if they’re not: there’s likely to be good reasons either way. For example, in Miami or New Orleans a basement is a flood waiting to happen, thus they’re not particularly common in either; meanwhile in most of the central US they’re common and double as a tornado refuge.
We recently bought a house with no basement, the first no-basement home I have ever owned. We did it primarily because this is planned to be our last home - 2400 sq. ft. all on one level. My “man cave” is my home office, which was the 4th bedroom. Not big enough for a pool table, but I really don’t need one of those anyway. My tools and workshop spaces are the garage, barn and 2 permanent storage buildings.
So far, I don’t miss the basement. That said, I wouldn’t be sad if one magically appeared under the house one day!
I would definitely want a basement in the midwest or southeast due to the tornado risk. Sure, it doesn’t happen every year, but since you may only have a few minutes to get into shelter if a tornado does happen, you want somewhere to go.