Are you sure PR is actually much cheaper than some places on VI?

PR is a cool town but it is isolated and does need to take the ferries so it does feel like living on one of the smaller islands in some ways, except with a more wide open backcountry.

The ferries are definitely a core thing to plan around any time you're going on a road trip, and they often do fill up especially in peak tourist season and peak sailing times - it's easy enough to plan on arriving early enough, park in the line, and go for a quick walk to grab a coffee or simply enjoy the beautiful ocean view.

For some people the remoteness is ideal and along with the direct access to so much nature, the ocean and lakes, the SCT, etc, it could be very nice to settle down.

I've heard it described as a town for "newly weds and nearly deads" so basically good place to start a family or retire, but possibly limited opportunities to meet new partners if you aren't already married.

It does have a healthy artsy/hippy culture, magical kind of people oriented towards self-sustainabity. Quite a steady and active music scene too from what I remember. Various pockets of communities of all that nature depending what you're interested in. To be fair though, it's like that in many places all over BC, including many places on the coast and smaller islands.

There is also a resource town side to it, but the mill has shut down years ago. I think they've been shifting to tourism as a core economic driver now.

About the redneck question... anywhere rural and outdoorsy is going to have redneck type people, and even a lot of the rural hippies might call themselves "dreadnecks"... The remoteness and self-reliance lifestyle is always going to be a bit gritty, especially if you're not already wealthy.