I genuinely like the idea of higher density, as much as I like driving, having a city that’s walkable and with good transit (which density incentives) would be a dream.
My current city is a sprawling suburb and it’s almost an hour by bus to do a trip that takes 10 minutes by car.
Also thank you for expanding on this!
Church seems to fill the hobby need and has some of the same core aspects
Honestly replacement really could be as simple as finding a group that fits your hobbies (I’m in a writing group for example)
Alternatively volunteer, it checks a lot of the same boxes (sense of community, trying to make things better) with none of the religious bits (assuming you find an agnostic organization)