I guess it's time we all credited Stephenie Meyer for bringing national attention to this critical bellwether. /s
About two years ago I spent a week driving through Olympic National Park, I thought Forks was just one of many small towns but it turns out it's the only small town in that area of the state.
And it's basically just a single, dirty main street with a handful of businesses serving the logging community, a school, and some Twilight tourism stuff. I don't even know what the Twilight tourism stuff would do. Drive to the high school and then what? There's nothing there lol.
Anyway, we ate lunch at some mediocre Mexican restaurant that only took cash, and then drove about 30 miles south to visit the Hoh rainforest, before I realiized that we were running low and the nearest gas station was... 30 miles back north in Forks! So we had to turn around and drive back to Forks to fill up. By that time I had had more than enough of Forks, and really the whole area.
Back in 2017, I visited the same area of Washington, and I agree entirely with your characterization of Forks. I also took video of driving past the "Native to Twilight" store (no, I wasn't the one driving). I think I also ate at that same restaurant.
The Hoh Rainforest is beautiful, though; I saw a ton of elk and deer there. I'd love to go back there again sometime.
