can you tell a city's importance in the suburbs it spawns?

Some of us would like to think that suburbia everywhere is homogenized and indistinguishable from metro area to metro area, but is that truly the case?

Doesn't the appearance of a city's suburban area depend on the importance of that city and that city's wealth, as well? Is a city's persona reflected onto its suburbs?

Here's the question:

CAN YOU TELL THE IMPORTANCE OF A MAJOR AMERICAN CITY BY NEVER STEPPING FOOT IN THAT CITY, BUT JUST DRIVING THORUGH ITS SUBURBS?

To clarify, do the suburbs of Top Tier cities look different than the suburbs of lower tier cities....be that in transportation, housing costs (obvious one), density, shopping, education, culture, diversity, restaurants, enterainment, traffic, amenities,attractions, etc.?

Is suburban Baltimore fundamentally different from suburban NYC?
Suburban Cleveland from suburban Chicago?
Suburban San Diego from suburban LA?
etc.

Can you get a sense of how major a city is just by viewing and analyzing its suburbs?>