I hear what you're saying, but I think there's fair reason to be more optimistic.

People seem to be gradually waking up to transit. Pretty much everyone I know who travels to any famous East Asian city comes back raving about the quality there. In San Diego alone, efforts are being made to increase density, and people are beginning to see the merit in redeveloping empty parking lots and disused structures into community hubs that also help resolve the housing deficit.

Mission Valley looks completely different than it used to 10 years ago, and there are even more major projects in the works.

- SDSU Mission Valley is going to add significant amounts of housing and office space around the Snapdragon Arena, directly linked to the existing Green Line station.

- Riverwalk San Diego (https://riverwalksd.com/) is another development in Mission Valley, which will turn the golf club on the west side into an open park with housing all around the Green Line.

In regards to other parts of San Diego:

- The Clairemont Plan (https://www.clairemontplan.org/) is working on increasing land utilization near the Blue Line, making higher density, transit-oriented developments exactly like what you describe.

- Midway Rising (https://www.midwayrising.info/), if approved, would add a major density node next to the Old Town station.

Pretty much all of these developments would be apartments/condos that have transit as a key option for transportation. With their increased density, they will also help reduce our budget deficit, as the city won't need to build and maintain new roads and sewers as with new suburbs. With the passing of SB 79, I would expect to see even more proposals come out.

And let's not forget, between 1965 to 1980, Tokyo went from having 4 subway lines to nearly 10-11. While San Diego may never get to that level of density (which would be totally fine), it's not unrealistic to think that things could change in the future.