As much as I love small cafes, I have to say, Starbucks has grown on me, specifically living in a nice neighbourhood. The Starbucks near me is always very clean, has a very nice interior, plenty of outlets for laptops, fast wifi, very clean washrooms, and pleasant baristas. They even have a large communal table which they allow meetups to book. And plenty of people ranging from families to students walk from their detached homes to chill. I know that not all Starbucks are like that (one NYC location had a filthy bathroom, one in San Bruno is always packed with inventory boxes and people) but I think they were able to foster a community and place of comfort for their cafe.
People hate on Starbucks but it has brought halfway decent coffee to the masses. Yes, the locally owned specialty coffee shop will be better, but Starbucks coffee is not actively offensive the way McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, or office drip coffeemaker (or worse, vending machine) coffee are. Back in the 80s, "cappuccino" was a signal of rich-toff status. These days anyone with $5 in their pocket (so perhaps excluding the absolute poorest) can have one. Plus they really put effort into making something resembling the "upscale café" experience available to the masses. Which means that small town cafés, in order to cater to young hipsters with money to burn, have had to up their game.
I think you're overestimating the number of people in the states who have $5 in their pocket on any given day to blow on coffee, having said 'perhaps excluding the absolute poorest'. :(
A few days ago, I was blown away by kids at the Starbucks probably around aged 10 (give or take a few years) teaching one another how to pay their Starbucks balance with their iPhone. In my youth I never had such an expensive piece of hardware in my pocket, nor the cash to spend on $4 drinks.
