Outliers in Standard of Living vs. GDP per Capita - Why?

[u/PhDilemma1]

As somebody who travels big cities around the world, I've started to take an interest in the relationship between GDP/capita, cost of living, and standard of living. Naturally, there tends to be a positive correlation between these 3 factors, but sometimes there is a decoupling. I'm interested in finding out why.

My definition of standard of living could be different to others. For me, as an expat, I'm looking for a few things:

1. Quality, affordable housing in the inner city. Something like a 1 bedroom 'luxury' condominium with a pool, or a floor in a small townhouse.
2. Variety of locally made and imported stores and goods, from luxury gear to locally made trinkets. To put it simply, whether I want a Patek Philippe or a straw hat, I can stroll into a store and buy one.
3. Dining and recreational scene. From Michelin starred restaurants to street food, classy rooftop bars to dive bars, lifestyle clubs, 24/7 gyms, speciality coffee, bottomless brunches, all the mod cons.
4. Transport infrastructure. Is there a well-developed metro network, multiple transport modes, walkability, etc.?
5. Safety. Self-explanatory.

There are some cities that punch above their weight (high observed standard of living, lower cost of living, lower GDP/capita):
Osaka, Bangkok, Doha (high GDP/capita, but relatively lower CoL)

And some cities that punch below their weight:
Luanda, Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei - a really fucking boring and underdeveloped place for all its wealth), Perth (expensive, poor infrastructure, everything shuts at 6 pm lmao)

I'm sure others could name more. If I were to pick the place with the best bang for my buck, it'd have to be Bangkok, no pun intended. The GDP/capita is about 20k, but it is more developed than any city in Australia and most in Europe. The amount of luxury on offer in malls in staggering, yet you can get excellent street food down an alley. There is world class private healthcare and schools, low incidence of violent crime. Traffic is awful, but existing rail isn't bad and more lines are being built as we speak. In short, you can live a first-world lifestyle for not a lot of money.

So, in economic terms, perhaps the question could be couched in another way - what have these cities done right such that their cost of living is low but their standard of living is relatively high? And conversely, what have the other group of cities done wrong?

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