The hardest thing about living in Thompson would be how difficult it is to get away to someplace more urban for a weekend. The train seems to take a staggering 22 hours to get to Winnipeg, and the cheapest flight I found to Winnipeg for this coming weekend would be $759.50 round trip. (Leaving 8 pm Friday, returning 9 pm Sunday.) Brandon is no closer, and, well, not as urban as Winnipeg anyway. From Brandon, we used to drive into Winnipeg at least once a month for plays, ballet and concerts. From what I’ve found, you’d be stuck driving a solid 8 hours (on good roads.) Link to Thompson Airport, which is where I found out about airlines.
The good news is at least you can drive, so you can seriously stock up on stuff. (When my friend Bruce taught in Kangiksualujjuaq, bush plane was the only way in and out, so you were kinda limited in what you brought back and forth. Large musical instruments, big collections of books, etc., were prohibitively expensive to take along with you.)
Sum total of my direct experience - I haven’t been in Thompson for nearly 30 years, and it was the most poorly planned stop of our tour when I was there. I remember the guy in the choir from there was really nice, and I got to crash at his house and the rest of his family was really cool, but his mum was the local music teacher and the house was full of really great stuff.
The down side is that you may really miss various things that you can only get in larger centres.
My sister has lived in some pretty isolated areas, and how you get along depends so much on who else is there in the community. She was lucky, in that the ranch (between Little Fort, BC and 70 Mile House, BC) had some great people living in the area. It was a wrench when they decided to move to the bigger centre of Vanderhoof, BC. Now that the kids have graduated, they decided to try Victoria, BC for a taste of the big city life. It’s okay, but it’s way too urban a city for them, (!?!) and they’re looking for rural properties again. I know their time in Vanderhoof was filled with gourmet cooking, wine making and tastings, whisky tastings, book clubs, amateur concerts, plays, etc., but they could also tell you about other nearby communities that had nothing to offer but crystal meth and alcoholism. So much depends on who else is in the town.
