Standard disclaimers about PJW apply here, but one of the observations I have from many years of life in major cities is how provincial urbanites actually are.
A lot of folks I knew who grew up in NY or LA had literally never left their respective cities. And when they did, it was to fly to another coastal city or to some vacation spot. NYers are particularly guilty of this, in my experience. Many don't know how to drive a car, so their mobility is basically limited to subway stops, and that's about as far as their curiosity extends as well.
It's not really any different than the handful of people I grew up with who never left Nebraska, and never traveled, but it's almost impossible to grow up outside of the "important" places without hearing a lot about them, simply because that's where all the news media and entertainment people are from and it's where all their stories are set.
It's weird.