He could have glamorized Albuquerque or chosen a nicer (and less representative) part of the country as a setting. But, no, he tells his tales of moral decay within a distinctly American spatial order: strip malls, arterial roads, parking lots, cul-de-sacs, and isolated single-use zones.
People watched Breaking Bad and kept saying how they hope they never ever have to go to Albuquerque
That’s not all that easy to do. I have deep roots near there and it’s undeniably grim. I can’t think of any low-desert city that’s not depressing.