What's all this nonsense about paradise, anyway? Paradise is a chimera of a empty island warmed by tropic breezes, where happy non-enties bring the drinks and serve as pliant props for our fantasies of unspoiled life. (See "coming of age in Samoa" by Margeret Mead. It turned out to be fiction.)
Cozumel is a real place, full of real people who work hard to make a living. They work, raise families, run restaurants and shops. They sell condos on the streets because that's what it takes to make a living sometimes. They have a terrific festival every Sunday night they share with us. They are polite (even the Taxi drivers) and funny when you listen to them. Many labor hard in the sun to build things the tourists dismiss as inauthentic. Coz has miles of beautiful beaches any one of us can use. Where I live, (NY-NJ) miles of coastline are off-limits, or "town residents only". At night San Miquel can be jumping in the square, and nearly silent a few blocks in. I love looking at those catamarans moored by the lighthouse. The captains are master boat-handlers, the DM are pro's who can help the least skillfull diver who shows up with a c-card.
I like Coz because it's a real place, with real people. Paradise is a dream. Starbucks can't hurt Coz.