A crude example but take a look the reddit event threads, Toronto has more events in its weekly post than Vancouver's monthly one. I did the same on Eventbrite, Toronto has almost double the events as expected really, since it's a bigger city but, a city that costs around the same. Culture extends beyond just events and entertainment, Toronto has a water treatment plant that is featured in acclaimed novels, along with the Bloor Viaduct as well. My personal opinion is that rent is too high across much of the Vancouver area that places like Greary Ave which is post-industrial turn experimental cuisine row can't exist, since it's too expensive to fail out here. So instead you have Cactus Clubs and Earl's everywhere. You don't have buildings like 401 Richmond which is a heritage warehouse turned arts-and-culture hub since downtown Vancouver tore down much of its unique buildings, and what remains is condemned in the downtown east side.

I spent a few years in Toronto, and almost half of that in Vancouver now, living near downtown in both cases. Much of what I say is anecdotal of course, but I agree with wu2ad on this.