Oh I totally believe that, I was only there for a very short time and did stereotypical tourist stuff which gives a super skewed experience. I will say the museums were great, and food options were amazing and totally possible to find affordable options if you were even slightly adventurous.

The wealth disparity was shocking though, and it was strange to me to see such an established city that still fully depended on migrant labour for its basic functioning if that makes sense?

Also Times Square is a portal to hell and no one should go there. We were warned by a local but went anyway and it was worse than I imagined