There's a disconnect in these comments that suggest a homeowner is forced into an HOA; for the vast (vast!) majority of cases, the HOA (and it's publicly available rules) are pre-existing to the home purchase. The rules can be annoying, but the primary purpose is the preserve the sale value of the properties.
I'm ambivalent about an HOA, but my father's neighbors probably wished they had one when they were selling their house (he had two broken cars and one broke down lawn mower in the driveway for years).
Well, that's true - nobody is forced to buy a house. (Though, sometimes, they inherit one that's hard to sell due to an HOA.)
But on the other hand, housing supply is limited. Sometimes your choices are "a decent house close to a decent school with an HOA" or "I guess we'll move seven hours away from everyone we've ever known" or "The neighbor's meth lab probably won't detonate this year, right?"
I'm ambivalent about an HOA, but my father's neighbors probably wished they had one when they were selling their house (he had two broken cars and one broke down lawn mower in the driveway for years).