Honestly, I feel that Granite Falls and El Selvadorada would be undermined if they were made residential, both in terms of difficulty and theme. Both are supposed to be rural, out of the way places separated from modern suburban civilization, you shouldn't be able to quickly pop over to a San Myshuno Day Spa because you got swarmed by bugs, then pop back, or attend your daily job at the office, it's supposed to be Jungle Adventure, not Sunday Morning Constitutional in the Botanical Gardens. They are supposed to give you the feeling that you are alone, hours from help, Nancy Landgraab nowhere in site. You shouldn't be able to have your suburban American lifestyle in these places.
Then we have difficulty: having a defined timeframe in order to accomplish stuff, especially archeology which is already literally the most lucrative money source in game, and would be made even easier if you could just pop over for a couple of hours and return without any cost or penalty, and be back before you need to go to work.
