Folks miss out on why major cultural centers attract people. In history it was because of the opportunities from ports and trade, today its still pretty much the same. Pittsburgh is not currently an airline hub for any airline. Meaning if you want to go anywhere other than Philadelphia you need a connection. Its also not adequately driveable or train distance from any city worth going to - Cleveland is your only neighbor, and getting to Philly from Pittsburgh is considerably more painful than Los Angeles to San Francisco (have done both runs routinely I would take the 5 through the central valley over the turnpike in winter anyday). Its also not a city that anyone passes through on a regular basis without making it the destination.
I can take a meeting with even international clients in NYC without ever leaving. They come here. If you're in art, yes you want to go where you can live cheap, but if you want to make a splash you need to be somewhere where there is sufficient disposable income and a big enough transient population to support viral awareness of your art. Pittsburgh doesn't have enough of those things. I think Pittsburgh is a wonderful city, filled with great parks, cheap beer and good folks. But I haven't visited there in years and there is a reason why
If you haven't visited in years, you may have missed a lot of the changes. Depends on how many years.
Pittsburgh may not have an airline hub or access to the ocean, but it's been a transit nexus for decades; it's the last major city anything going from the New York / Philadelphia area along I-76 will hit before crossing the Alleghenies. As such, it sees a good assortment of art events and shows as they tour; theater tours (especially with significant technical needs) tend to be convoy-of-trailers affairs. To drill in on the arts specifically: I've seen Wicked, Addams Family, and Mary Poppins without having to plan a weekend for the event. There's also a Tony-award-winner-producing college in the city, which creates some excellent local shows as a side-effect.
You also may be under-estimating the effect of real estate value in a world where people can make a productive input without needing to physically geo-locate with the rest of their company. Pittsburgh is a growing location for software and other engineering. Apple, Disney, and Google all have offices in the city. Ports still matter, but not as much as they did in the days where the only meaningful value was in goods; in a service economy, things are more distributed.
I'm from New York City but went to college in the 'Burgh, and while I do have an affinity for the place given the four years I spent there, I'd never choose to live there. It's a remarkably isolated city...
The last time Pittsburgh was a real, honest transit nexus was some 60-70 years ago for the Pennsylvania Railroad. While USAir had something of a hub at PIT, it's been tertiary to PHL and CLT since the company was called USAir, and then they pulled out very quickly after they were acquired by America West. For road travel, maybe it's a pass through city if you are starting in Philly and are driving to Cleveland, Detroit, or Chicago, but most of the traffic in the NE Corridor opts for I-80 to the north, which is much more direct and a much easier drive than the Turnpike.
Pittsburgh also doesn't have much of a metropolitan area surrounding it. The drop-off from downtown to rural is rather stark. And while there are indeed some nice neighborhoods (Shadyside and Squirrel Hill within the city... Fox Chapel and Wexford to name a few outside,) most of the inner suburbs have an, IMHO, outer-outer borough NYC feel to them (i.e. Bay Ridge or Bay Side, not Williamsburg or Park Slope.) There is practically no commuter belt, so you either really have to like the urban core, or the surrounding mountain towns.
So yes, it's an isolated city. Even Cleveland and Baltimore have more of a metro-urban feel to them in some respects. It's certainly not an issue for many who choose to live there, but it's always been my reason for staying away after college.
I agree for the most part but I would like to question your use of rural in this context.
As I see it, there are a couple of rural pockets near the city but they're the exception rather than the rule. There's an approximately 20 mile buffer of suburbs between the city proper and rural areas.
Maybe it's a difference of experience so where do New York eyes see as rural near the city?
I can take a meeting with even international clients in NYC without ever leaving. They come here. If you're in art, yes you want to go where you can live cheap, but if you want to make a splash you need to be somewhere where there is sufficient disposable income and a big enough transient population to support viral awareness of your art. Pittsburgh doesn't have enough of those things. I think Pittsburgh is a wonderful city, filled with great parks, cheap beer and good folks. But I haven't visited there in years and there is a reason why