All small towns are not created equal, imagining they are is going to lead you to invalid conclusions.
Desirable towns popular with outdoor recreation enthusiasts are generally not suffering any sort of widespread brain drain issue (if anything, they have the opposite issue - too many highly educated people, not enough of the people to do the jobs lower on the ladder).
They have about nothing in common with some rural town in the Great Plains that's been slowly depopulating for a century.
Desirable towns popular with outdoor recreation enthusiasts are generally not suffering any sort of widespread brain drain issue (if anything, they have the opposite issue - too many highly educated people, not enough of the people to do the jobs lower on the ladder).
They have about nothing in common with some rural town in the Great Plains that's been slowly depopulating for a century.