I grew up in Las Cruces, NM, about 45 miles from El Paso in the 80s. We’d generally have to go there 2-3 times a year to do more exotic shopping, to go to pick someone up or leave from the airport, or (me only) go to a gaming convention that 'Cruces was too small for. I’d have called the whole town a prison with only minor exaggeration. It’s NOT an appealing city, but I won’t just blame that on the Texas-ness.
On the otherhand, I spent far too much time in Plainview TX (read as one summer and a couple of school long holiday) and that’s a pure Texan hellhole, far, far worse than the similar time I spent in Amarillo TX!
But I have a great deal of fun when visiting friends in Austin, and the areas in the Dallas/FT Worth Metroplex I’ve visited were quite “normal” other than some of the signage, although to be granted, I was visiting mostly more upscale areas where my brother and his family lived.