Aaand there you have it: one person thinks HH is too busy and prefers somewhere quieter with fewer westerners.
And the second person thinks HH is too quiet and boring.
So basically it will come down to your personality type: are you an introvert (getting your energy from being isolated with few human interactions - so Isaan) or an extrovert (getting your energy from being around like minded people - so say Phuket or Bangkok) ?
HH is somewhere between the two. Too quiet for me but I have several friends who love living there.
My guess is you’ll be happy in Hua Hin - it’s affordable, can be a bit quiet but there’s life if you look for it, and probably a good chance of finding a decent lady there - suggest trying the real estate agents as they are generally well presented and have great English skills.
HH can get a little polluted in the burning season (as it’s on the Gulf rather than the West coast) but not onerous.
There’s now a relatively fast train service to Bangkok, and has 2-3 decent sized malls with plenty of western products. If you play golf there are plenty of options.
So try it out for a couple of years, find a nice lady but if after that time you still find it too quiet then I’d suggest try one of the quieter part of Phuket.
Sell the physical gold and buy the equivalent amount of GLD - this is an ETF that holds gold to GLD 1:1. You can open an account with Schwab or Interactive Brokers for this
LTR costs just 50k for 10 years, and gives you tax free overseas income and capital gains (the only visa with that massive benefit). Happy to recommend an agent if you PM me