Yes, Louisville and Lexington are the state's two exceptional places. Largely liberal and reasonably enlightened, lovely architecture, enough cultural and commercial sophistication to get by on if not enough to thrive, these cities are at once a bit down at the heels and very attractive. Connect in the right circles and you will meet interesting people who have been everywhere and are happy to know you.
People are friendly to meet and hard to keep as a rule. Most will be glad to see you in whatever context you meet, but you will be very lucky to meet someone with friend potential whom you come to know in different contexts. They definitely exist, but it's needle-haystack stuff.
If you can make a nice trip elsewhere (even a long weekend in Chicago) every couple of months or more, the smallness of the place and the small, tight social circles are not so wearying. If you are a car trip type, there's Chicago, Nashville, Cincinnati with a couple museums...but for me it seems isolated to be such a long drive to mostly mediocre places (outside Chicago.)
There are some interesting native people who moved away and later moved back for a less stressful life, to have a house they could never afford in L.A. or NYC, because they can downsize their career or work from home. It is easier, probably, to never meet the local people who can make all the difference in how you experience the place.
Both cities feel very small very soon. If you can travel a lot, if you're very self-contained socially, you can probably get by well enough. Both towns have a lot if boosterism for civic and cultural events, the street fairs, art fairs, house tours, food festivals, etc, but again, a lot more boosterism than fun unless you make an outing with friends. There are some small historic towns worth exploring. It's small.
Lexington's good historic architecture is fairly pricey, certainly for Kentucky, and likewise for Louisville, though the latter being a bigger city has more such neighborhoods and more variety including in price.