I agree completely, we've moved away from the PPs too. We camped with a PUP for years, and although we now have a HTT with full facilities it bothers me to camp somewhere (ie PPs) that have horrific bathrooms. The private CGs, even little ones, generally have decent w/cs.
We have found that many smaller, rural golf courses have adjacent camgrounds. They're quiet, inexpensive, well maintained, and don't charge extra for using the sani dump (not only does paying bother me, but needing the exact change to operate a slot machine sure does).
I find the national parks give somewhat better value, but require the park pass.
Camping isn't what it use to be, you could decide on a wed or thurs when and where to go. :/