I think you mean municipalities with the foresight to realize that their residents would never get fiber under any other circumstance

That's one spin on it, but at the end of the day, it's a decision borne out of a lack of other options. Incidentally, it's also one reason countries like South Korea and places in eastern Europe lead the way in fiber deployment. They were/are underdogs, looking for ways to make themselves more economically competitive. Places like New York or San Francisco don't think the same way. They're prosperous enough to be able to fight over things like how ugly the fiber cabinets are.

If things were regulated like last mile Internet like you want, the smartphone/mobile boom would never have happened.

I don't think we should regulate last mile internet, for precisely that reason.