Actually the Gemarah tells us to live in the proximity of Torah Jews and Torah institutions. The Gemarah points out one Amorah who moved away and died prematurely. There IS a difference between living surrounded by Yidden ALL OVER then being one or two all alone. – That I heard from Rabbi Miller ztz”l. Another point is that ????? ?????? is more where there are more Yidden, same as in ?????.
So yes there is a difference between living In Town (a torah town) and that of OOT