Freeways take out 1 or 2 blocks of housing, and exits and cloverleafs much more. So huge quantities of valuable dense urban housing has been lost. Neighborhoods have been divided. Noisy, polluting freeways have degraded these same urban neighborhoods. Even after all that it in not certain that folk really prefer the suburbs.
People pay more for what they really want, buffered by what is available.
This is also the densest housing. Look at visual preference surveys. Many stores are small, but may be mixed with large ones. The architecture and building materials are high quality and varied. Occasional tall buildings are OK if interesting and attractive at sidewalk level.