sounds like you guys fight over nothing, nothing of much knowledge involved at least.
Punta Cana's Tourism started many decades ago with some of the more expensive vacation spots, the first one /everything on the grounds of Grupo Punta Cana is to date still not available as AI and most likely never will become such.
the next one to open, just a few months later, was the Barcelo Bavaro Beach Resort, which been from the start a expensive high end AI property.
it was well later on that the AI industry boomed by adding the more economic resorts, which are predominant todays.
but back around the beginnings, a vacation at a Barcelo in PC been a expensive thing, most clients been europeans, a very long time before the northamerican market started to bring their clientel down to PC to have a caribbean vacation well cheaper than a long weekend in Florida would cost.
as for La Romana,
that city started solely on the money of Central La Romana.
the very old Casa de Campo been built for the super rich, the opposite of a typical AI vacation.
todays,
La Romana runs Tourism of all levels, the vast mayority of Tourists for La Romana are the same as in Punta Cana, the cheaper AI clientel. as far as numbers of Visitors goes, Casa de Campo hosts just a small number of the La Romana Tourist clientel.
the mayority for the area stays at the AI hotels around Bayahibe, spread til west of La Romana with the Bahia Principe La Romana there.
as for the original theme,
La Romana Filthy,
i agree by personal knowledge.
20 years ago La Romana was in my opinion a relatively clean place to drive thru, compared to Safacon City Higuey and others.
the last years La Romana shows less and less of the former cleaniness,
while Higuey seems to be more active, at least in certain main sectors, but still far from becoming named "Clean".
Mike