Austin checks a lot of the same boxes, except for the hub airport one, and is arguably a better cultural fit. There was some talk in 2018 of Delta making it a “mini-hub”, but who knows where that went. I don’t have enough travel experience in/out of Austin to compare.
I didn’t travel that much out of Austin, and mostly to other hubs, but I never had a bad time and often could get direct flights. The main hassle is just that it’s far from the other places, and so the flights take a while, but that’s always going to be true for at least some people. [I suspect it’s better to be close to some places and further from others than medium distance from everyone, but that’s not obvious.]
I didn’t travel that much out of Austin, and mostly to other hubs, but I never had a bad time and often could get direct flights. The main hassle is just that it’s far from the other places, and so the flights take a while, but that’s always going to be true for at least some people. [I suspect it’s better to be close to some places and further from others than medium distance from everyone, but that’s not obvious.]