If you thought Maine offered a low quality of life in 2004, I don’t think you’re going to find much of a difference in 2023. That being said, the towns you listed shouldn’t present you with many of the issues you mentioned. I live in the Bath area and the internet speeds are sufficient to work remotely from home. As far as opioids go, I think you’d have to go out of your way to have any issues. Roads can be rough but that’s just part of living in New England.

The public schools in the area are decent. I recently graduated from Morse (Bath) and the education is largely what you put into it. Students who work hard and pursue the honors/AP track often get accepted to top universities. Those in the standard track won’t get as good of an education. The best public schools are generally located in coastal Cumberland and York Counties.

I think you likely missed the boat on buying a 10+ acre lot and building a home in Midcoast/Southern Maine. Other remote workers along with investors flooded in during Covid and prices have skyrocketed. Despite this, you make far more than the average Mainer and I think you could easily afford an average home in the areas you listed.

All that being said, why do you even want to come back at this point? It seems your initial impression was negative and outside of housing becoming unaffordable I don’t think anything has fundamentally changed in the past 20 years.