Why are suburban neighborhoods so much different than city neighborhoods?

Forgive me for my lack of knowledge about real estate development and suburbs vs cities with regard to houston.

Ive lived in suburbs of Houston my whole life and up until recently, only really started to explore the "inner city" neighborhoods, and I absolutely love the way they look. Specificially the Greater Heights area. The houses all seem unique and interesting, there seems to be a wide range of house value, and the houses all seem to be built at least somewhat nearby "stuff," like you could conceivably walk to a corner store or something along those lines.

This is way different than suburban neighborhoods, where all the houses all mostly look exactly the same, its a massive sprawling giant block of houses that has nothing really "walkable," and overall it just looks like a way different.

Now I do know a little about master planned communities and home owners associatations and this and that, but is that why all of the suburbs look so…cookie cutter? Because its just a giant planned community? Are there any suburban cities that retain some of the look and feel of these inner city neighborhoods?