Most people have some choice about where they live - noise should be a factor when deciding where to live. In a place as busy as NYC, I would think a person choosing to live there places "quietness" low on the list of priorities.
First, not really: moving means leaving your job (unless you can do it remote), and incurs significant monetary expenses. If you have a family it's even worse, switching school, etc.
Even if you do get to pick where you live, we live in a highly dynamic world. The quiet dead-end of today could change within a matter of months and have a highrise on it, especially given how cities are sometimes taking drastic actions to fight the housing crisis.
Finally, there's a difference between ambient noise and outliers. You can live on Manhattan and be naturally dealing with cars and people, but then your upstairs neighbor decides to get into drumming or start dating someone with 3 toddlers, and that's a whole different game.
Even if we take out changes from the equation, it's VERY hard to properly assess how noisy somewhere will be, even if you visit it multiple times. By the time you realize there's a problem, you're stuck with a mortgage or a lease and have to deal with it for a year or more.
