Try getting decent Chinese food in a rural farm community, or try seeing the movie of your choice in a modern theater. Or maybe shop in a few different stores for that special gift. You need sprawl for all of the above. By its very nature, rural life can be dull, dull, dull. Cities offer much more to do, but they are running out of space, and life there can be hectic, very expensive, and dangerous.
Sprawl makes life easier for people tired of high-energy city life.
Sprawl also gives city dwellers a chance to live the American Dream. Sprawl includes endless suburban neighborhoods, people jammed onto acres of cracker-box condos and identical raised ranch houses. These people have needs. This means more places to eat, to play, and buy stuff than a rural community can offer, in an area safer and much more homogenous than the city. Throw in cable TV, two cars, plenty of debt, and a lawn for each family, and you have entire herds of people living the American Dream.