a large part of my dislike of sprawl-burbia is indeed aesthetic.
here's the street i grew up on in suburban chicago:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0695...7i13312!8i6656
it's not amazing or remarkable in any meaningful way, but it's attractive enough, is on a fully interconnected street-grid, the houses (while similarish) are not cookie-cutter, and most importantly, because it has alleys, all of the car shit (garages, drive-ways, curb cuts, etc) is kept out of sight at the back of the property.
if suburbia had been built more along the lines of the above in the post-war era, then i wouldn't hate it nearly so much, but post-war suburban developers tossed the street-car suburbia playbook out of the window for some stupid fucking reason and decided to make everything ugly instead. it was so unnecessary.
and yes, large trees can absolutely help improve a neighborhood,
ANY neighborhood, a tremendous amount.