Chiming in for SE Fla here: Palm Beach County.
First, PBI is the best airport, it's nice and easy and clean and pretty, but for major Intl stuff MIA is not far away, and you have FTL in between - makes flying pretty easy with a lot of choices.
No red tide over here, but we do get super crowded in season. July actually feels hotter for me than August, but if you can't stand it that's a good dealbreaker to decide. Still, driving around in March is another PITA.
Plenty of higher end 55+ communities, mostly not close to the beach though, but a 20 minute drive as most are west of Jog/Military, as they are newer builds. Nothing east of Military is a new sfh build unless it was a tear down. Most new stuff around me is apartments going up in office complexes. Nice ones, $4-5k a month rentals, or 1M townhomes.
If you go for a 55+ community, you'll want a decent sized one to spread around assessments - lot easier to repair the front entryway when it's spread over 900 residents than 200...Most of these will have a nice community pool, but do ask what temp it is heated to, as most seem to be 84f, which sounds nice to most people, but might as well be 55 once you've been here for a couple of years. (I don't swim under 87, and I like 91 lol). Shutters are a no-go if you have to put them up yourself - easy to do at 35, not 65, and not if you want freedom to travel - you'll at least want accordions, and most newer homes or remodels will have impact windows. When shopping, ask for considerations on homes that don't, or homes with roofs over 15 years. All of these neighborhoods will also have HOAs which will have limits on when you can have shutters up - you usually cannot board up the house from June to November and leave it looking like that, not at the front at least.
Delray has a level 1 trauma center, and one of the best hospitals. Insurers love florida, particular BCBS. I have no trouble finding providers and specialists - I mean sure I have to look and try them out, but no problems doing so.
Politics seems to be hyper local - your neighborhood. You can be a in a blue county with a red subdivision, and vice versa. Also florida doesn't stay the same for long, we swing back and forth every 10 years or so. Of course, we have no income tax, yay.