Try
RVParkReviews for help in picking places to camp. We stay in mostly commercial parks (DW wants full hookups) and have only ended up in one that has large numbers of "permanent" residents like you described. Won't be going back there. But have found some very nice commercial parks. State and National parks sometimes have electric or electric/water hookups and are way more like what I consider camping than commercial parks.
As for build quality, that's the regrettable state of things at the present. Just try to keep up with the maintenance and fix issues while they are small before they get bigger. Helps to be handy and able to take care of things yourself. Lots of great information on this forum and lots of helpful people.
