Banned is maybe too far, but why should we as a country allow people to have petty power over meaningless things their neighbors do? Could we ban HOAs from being included in house sales, and every time it's sold the new owners have to opt in?
For the most part, I'm wondering about this in the context of single family homes since for homes like condos, you could make the case that HOAs are useful for shared things like roofs and whatnot. Maybe limit mandatory HOA involvement to things like what's truly necessary and shared and not how tall your grass is?
This is the truth. No one wants to volunteer to do anything or be on the board, but the second the board enforces any rules, the homeowners become self-conscious and start pointing the finger, making everyone's lives worse. The trick is to READ THE BYLAWS and don't buy a house if you don't like the bylaws.