I don't know where you're from but I view this sort of argument as basically american parochialism. The numbers don't mean anything, noticing square laws exist doesn't really have any affect on this domain. The dozens or hundreds of practical accommodations due to climate, culture, history, funding, aesthetics etc etc add up to much greater than "range ^ 2" or whatever.
Other configurations do work, in different ways and to varying degrees, all over the world. The people there aren't meaningfully less free because of the transit structure around them, and in fact the cars-only model is the absolute most restricting one you can have, given the obvious fact that not everyone can drive at all stages of their lives.
American society is structured around the idea that all gains outside the most private spheres rightfully belong to the corporate entities that can control them. But that isn't a given either; many places don't work that like and it's not necessary that we do.
You can have that experience as well in an american mid-sized city or a large exurb in an area where you can only access work or a grocery store in a private car. I have lived in such places in fact. So I'm not at all convinced that accessible transit creates slumlords or whatever the argument even is there.
You can make shitty places to live with or without cars. That's not an argument, in itself, for making them with cars.
I lived in shitty apartments that cost a king's ransom before I escaped to the suburbs. Magnasanti reminds me of those.
An extortionate real estate situation can absorb all of the benefits brought by density, and more besides. It's great for the slumlords -- or, more accurately, the real estate investment trusts representing the interests of the Magnasanti quadrillionaires -- but it sure sucks to be a drone stuck in their factorio game. Why should I want that?
Other configurations do work, in different ways and to varying degrees, all over the world. The people there aren't meaningfully less free because of the transit structure around them, and in fact the cars-only model is the absolute most restricting one you can have, given the obvious fact that not everyone can drive at all stages of their lives.
American society is structured around the idea that all gains outside the most private spheres rightfully belong to the corporate entities that can control them. But that isn't a given either; many places don't work that like and it's not necessary that we do.