The real attractions of the Ozarks are the climate, lakes and scenery.
Climate is four seasons but a generally mild winter and tolerable summer based on my Houston experiences. The lakes give good recreational opportunities. The scenery is excellent.
I talked a bit with the driver of the Duck Tour. He gave us the advice on the traffic loops. He told us to avoid the town on event weekends or plan on taking a long time to get to any shows. He also said that the traffic just about goes away once school starts. Most of their business after school starts is related to bus tours that usually have older people. The bus tours don't bring cars so congestion is less.
The shows aren't a significant factor in our decision making and we'd live well outside the strip. We were there during the "classic car" weekend and the Friday was a traffic jam on the main drag that went on forever. We had a couple days to orient ourselves and got around well on the bypass loops. The traffic really wasn't a problem but if we lived there we'd avoid the strip during event weekends.
We went to Bass Pro in both Springfield and Branson. The Springfield one is a good experience and is free.
Next door is the World of Wildlife which is a decent tourist value for $11. The Lake Duck Tour (on 76 and not at the Landing) was worth the $19. Yakov was so funny I was in tears. I'm ready to vote for him to be President. If you go, you'll know what I mean. I'm a history [-]idiot[/-] nut so I forced DW to go to Pea Ridge and Wilson's Creek battlefields in the heat. They were interesting. I'll go back without her if I get the chance. There wasn't time to go fishing but I'll do it next visit. We didn't really scratch the surface for the available things to do.
We're not done scouting but SW Missouri is the one to beat.