I don't know how old you are or how long you've lived there, but when I was a junior in college KC Metro fired the guy who took Seattle from 20th to 10th in the nation and replaced him with the guy who took Boston from 5th to dead last. Then there's the fact that Metro's "triple mode" buses came in 550lbs heavier than the city's weight requirements for surface streets. End result? They changed the law. Then there's the fact that King County is one of the only counties in the nation that allows you to run studded tires when there isn't, you know, ice on the roads. I do enjoy watching Eastern Washington going "we'll secede!" every eight years and watching Western Washington go "go ahead! We pay for 70% of your infrastructure!" I'll take your word on the location. I stopped really living in Seattle back in 2007 and back in 2007, it would have been a stone cold clusterfuck to add that much population to that spot.
I'm certainly younger than you but I was born in the area and have lived here my whole life. The number of years I've actually paid attention to any of that is probably fewer than for you. 40 years ago voters turned down a transit package that would have received 75% of its funding from the federal government and would be been completely built by 1985. Most of the opposition centered around the stupid idea that "if you don't build it, they won't come." That somehow NOT building a proper transit system would discourage people from moving to the area. And yeah, fuck studded tires. It's mostly older drivers and soccer moms that use them though. And yeah, the ongoing comedy between the two halves of the state is quite entertaining. The east half complains about all the money they put into "infrastructure they'll never use" and then beg for money to build highways that see fewer cars in a year than a Seattle highway sees in a week.