Actually, i joined to a city to help people, really. I'm not a nice builder on my own but i slowly learn how to build epic structures and me and my friends made the FIRST 16x16x16 copy of a crafting table. It sounds silly but it looks awesome and in fact, it is an original idea.
Also, it is nice to live with people because you can change your /sethome at anytime since there is a home set to be a town warp. I change my home to somewhere else and I just use the town warp to go back to my town.
I agree with both of you guys, really, living in a town improves your relation ship with others.
One last thing, people also make prices for their plots to prevent some annoying kids not following the rules and grieving everywhere. Most people who start a city already have 30k+ so they won't be rich with your 200$. Also you won't be poor by losing $200 neither. I think it worths.