Your question seems to be more "how much space should I get" than "should i own or rent". Space, privacy, mowing lawns, etc aren't questions of buying or renting. You can rent a house, and you can buy a small condo. You can own with an association that handles outside maintenance and you can rent from a landlord that expects you to mow the lawn and water the bushes.

When considering buying you need to think about- how long you plan on living there, what the local market is like, if your budget can handle unexpected maintenance and rising property taxes, how much rent vs ownership costs in you area, stuff like that. It's not about space.

Personally I love owning because renovating is fun as shit and I know I'm where I want to be for the next 10+ years, but it's also a huge stress that at any second my furnace could break or my city could decide to double property tax or whatever and then I'm fucked. (I mean not really I have savings/flexibility in my budget but it would really sting.) I love knowing that in 30 years I'll have a very minimal housing payment (just HOA/taxes) and won't need to worry about paying the landlord in retirement. Even if I sell this place and buy another, I'll be rolling the equity I've build up here into the new place. And I bought a fixer-upper in an up-and-coming neighborhood, so I expect this place to be much more valuable than what I paid in the near future. But of course if interest rates rise- which they will- housing prices will go down, so that's another thing to worry about...

It's a mixed bag. Home ownership is both exciting and terrifying, and feels both like freedom to do what you want and not worry about landlords, and being chained to something you might not want/be able to afford based on what the future holds.

For the record I also never want kids. That didn't factor into the buying decision at all. I was a financial decision that was right for me, not a dream about raising my kids with a backyard swingset and white picket fence.