It can work well though. My city of about 60k is a great example.

• As a city built out hundreds of years ago, it’s more centralized than most American cities, with a town square, offices, library, post office, etc in a tight walking radius.
• As a bedroom community of a major city, we have a couple train stations.
• As a city dedicated to quality of life and transit oriented growth, we grew the train station into a transit hub for buses, cycling, taxi, ride share, rail trail and micro mobility. It’s all surrounded by higher density housing - bigger apartment and condo complexes than elsewhere
• As a city watching its business interests, that walkable town center is a center of shops and restaurants from many culture

As someone in a neighborhood of single family homes, I have frequent buses stopping at my corner. However I frequently walk to the town center, to see a movie, enjoy a restaurant, etc.

Yes, transit can work well in medium and even small towns, depending non how they’re set up and run