I completely agree to this. We moved to TX from MN for the sake of being closer to friends. Within months I can see my social life is improved, I bump into friends casually while picking up kids & walking in the community.
I read the Atomic Habits & Tiny Habits few years back and one thing I learned from there is to remove resistances from the habits that one would want to build. Distance is a resistance in building/maintaining relationships. If one want to build better relationships, reducing the physical distance between friends does help.