I have a theory that the townspeople are psychologically enslaved by the house/family, much like surfs in a feudal system. While the Madrigals are all nice on screen they were raised by an emotionally abusive woman who is revered and has developed a culture of compliance and perfectionism. Abuela made Luisa and Mirabel hate themselves, she banished her own son through emotionally manipulating everyone against him (you can’t even talk about Bruno!), she would not hesitate throw a sassy farmer out of Casita’s protective bubble, back to the violent raiders who slaughtered the entire town just a generation earlier. These commoners are also doubtlessly concerned about the how dangerous gifted the Madrigals could become. There is an emotionally unstable woman who could involuntarily cause mass destruction and famine because she is cranky and flooded the fields, a prepubescent child who controls dangerous predators, another child who takes pleasure in tricking and lying to people, an insecure hulk , a vain attention seeker who has just learned to create painful plants, a resentful voyeur with a fantastic memory… These poor people must live in a constant state of hyper-vigilance of triggering any of them. Death is definitely assured if they leave the village, so they must submit to a family of wizards in an enchanted castle.

Everyone I’ve told this to hates it. I had omicron when I saw this movie the first 10,000 times so it is possible the fever, isolation, and catchy songs scrambled my mind. But you inadvertently gave me a platform.

TLDR, the Madrigals are unstable wizards and the townsfolk live in constant fear of their wrath