I'm not too familiar with the situation in the US, but aren't there areas with HOAs that pose similarly strict laws on the exterior of your house? Like length of grass etc. Doesn't seem to be too different.
Germany, for what it's worth, has a lot of the same laws protecting old buildings, where it is very hard to impossible to legally modify the front.
HOAs are different, and not trying to protect any historical anything.
They are literally a bunch of assholes that bunch together and patrol the streets to annoy people because they believe bullying others will keep their own property values high.
There are certainly horror stories about HOAs. But sometimes, for example, there is shared property like a private road that has to be maintained and plowed. How do you handle that without some sort of group decision-making?
They should not be able to have say over what happens on non-common property, including peoples' houses and yards, and financials around maintainence of that private road should be disclosed to all people who live on it.
Germany, for what it's worth, has a lot of the same laws protecting old buildings, where it is very hard to impossible to legally modify the front.