Occidental or Guerneville?

I'm looking at moving out to west Sonoma County, and I have some questions.

For context I'm originally from the Black Hills in South Dakota - where Mt Rushmore is, kinda same area as the Rockies, most friends I grew up with live in Denver - lived in Pasadena and LA, mostly with family, then went up to Humboldt County for a few months for school, ended up going to Oregon State instead, came to Berkeley for an internship and have been here for the past three years.

I like Berkeley, but I'd never buy real estate here lol. I liked Humboldt, but I felt that basically it's pretty sketchy and crazy how things work, or it's nice and safe but so expensive you might as well live in the Bay anyway. My friend's wife is from Santa Rosa, and I ended up staying in Guerneville for a bit several years back, and sometimes I'll go to Armstrong Woods, drive up the coast to Mendocino, or drive back on the 1 down through Marin.

I really like Marin, but they can be a bit too expensive and uh...like NIMBY, uptight about some silly things, like mountain biking on trails. Sonoma County feels like a better balance between Humboldt and the Bay to me. It's a place you can be classy like ready for a wedding,. or in flip flops and board shorts, it's a live and let live vibe without being too sketchy.

Anyway, if money was no object I'd probably choose Sebastopol, maybe Healdsburg. I work from home, so I don't mind being out from town, and I personally think that while Santa Rosa is convenient, the best parts of the county are the smaller towns like Sonoma and Sebastopol.

I hear bad things about Guerneville often, but I feel like maybe that's overhyped? It seems to me that a lot of Guerneville is pretty nice and down to earthi know there are tourists and some river rats, but I mean compared to SF and Oakland, and Eureka, it doesn't seem to be a big deal to me. I feel like there's a vibrant community if you know how to choose your friends wisely, and if you're someone who just wants to hike, mountain bike, meditate, garden, cook, etc it seems fine. Do you think the sometimes bad rap of Guerneville is overstated, or do you think I'm underestimating how sketchy Guerneville is? I know about the flooding btw, and where I'm looking at is out of the floodzone so I'm not really worried about it.

Camp Meeker and Occidental seem more peaceful, but maybe too peaceful. I could see getting too bored out there. I guess being closer to Sebastopol (by a little, not much) is kinda nice, and the lower flood and fire risk are nice. I feel like Occidental might be slightly more uptight than Guerneville too? Idk.

What so you think, would you rather live in Occidental or Guerneville, and why?