My HOA is goodish. It is only $175/year and the leadership is pretty laidback. What's helped is a developer keeps wanting to build a massive apartment complex illegally next door (destroying a riparian zone, without adequate emergency vehicle access, etc..).

It has kept all the busybodies in the neighborhood occupied for over 10 years. The developer just lost its 3rd lawsuit (with an appeal).

It's given the busybodies something to focus on and sucked up all the money they would use to cause mischief. Instead they have had to prioritized their enforcement on the worst offenders.

They have also slowly gotten rid of the AirBnB and Corporate owners by fining the shit out of them. It's stabilized the home prices and let a lot of younger families move into the neighborhood.