Honestly you've turned me around on this
I still don't think HOAs should exist, but it's obvious now they need to in places that are a capitalist hellscape
But only if they're run by people who aren't petty bourgeoisies, which sadly there's too many that are.
In places that have some amount of social democracy, the job of the HOA is done by the government.
If Jeff down the road ain't fixed his leak in 3 years, then people report it to the gov, and the gov gives Jeff two options; fix it, or we charge you money and fix it ourselves