My parents were part of the "Back to the Land" movement in the 60's. They bought a parcel of land in rural Maine in the late 60's, built a small log cabin, and lived there until the early 80's. No electricity, no phone, no running water (just a dug well; had to break the layer of ice to get water in the winter). Two mile dirt "driveway" out to the nearest town maintained dirt road where other people lived. Had to use a snowmobile to get in and out in the winter and for a month or so in the spring when everything turned to mud, it was nearly impossible to drive anything in and you just had to walk the two miles every time. My older sister was born in the cabin (I came during a hot spell and my mom wanted air conditioning so she made my dad drive her to the hospital to have me). My dad took on occasional part time jobs and seasonal work so they had a little bit of money coming in for gas, store bought ingredients, and property taxes. Otherwise, they were pretty much self-sufficient with a garden and raising animals. Eventually, we had to move closer to civilization so my sister and I could go to school more easily (the home schooling movement hadn't really reached Maine yet and they were starting to threaten us with truancy charges) but I still have a lot of memories of that time. The house we moved to after that had indoor plumbing and electricity and all that, but it was still a rural farm and we still gardened and raised animals for the majority of our food, so even that's probably pretty close to what people are now calling "homesteading".
It's absolutely a ton of hard work and sacrifice and people shouldn't underestimate that. There are aspects of my childhood that are really idyllic and memories that I'm really happy about. But I also remember outhouses (and a honey bucket in the winter), and a never ending series of chores for all of us (weeding, picking rocks out of the garden, harvesting plants, shovelling out stalls, getting up at 5am to go out into the pitch black freezing cold to feed the chickens and fight broody hens to get them off their eggs, chopping and stacking firewood). I've probably got an above average work ethic and ability to grind out hard work without complaining as a result, but experiencing that life also kind of pushed me in the opposite direction. I now live in a city thousands of miles away, work in tech, and while I still love hiking and camping, I absolutely loathe anything to do with gardening, landscaping or outdoor work. I have zero desire to do anything like homesteading myself (though I will admit that I occasionally think about living somewhere that I can have a pet goat. Goats are obnoxious but awesome and I miss them). Something about having to do those kinds of things for survival makes me never want to do them as a hobby.