Granted, the majority of expats live in rural Isaan because they married someone from here.
99% of the expats, this is not the place for them.
If you need indoor restaurants, malls, bars, nightlife, etc. this is not the place for you. Although places like Khon Kaen and Udon Thai offer all that.
Rural Isaan is place that is up and running at 5:00 AM and shut-down by 7:00 PM even on the weekends.
The odd festival provides the only form of entertainment.
Socializing with other expats when there is none to socialize with?
The expats that live here, can live life void of any other expats.
They moved here and grew into this life, same life as all the locals live accept the local have people to talk to.
If you cannot eat 100% local Thai food you won’t make it here either.
An expat has to adapt to a country/farming mentality lifestyle and that is all there is too it.
The good news is it is very cheap to live in rural Isaan.
There are no problems here, no traffic or anything else to stress you out.
The other good news is you always visit the tourist spots all over Thailand whenever you want to.
Isaan is not the place if you are trying to replicate a western lifestyle.
However, if you can assimilate into a farming community, a slow pace of life and adaption to the ways things are done here, you might find this is just a really, really nice place to live.
Your western money can go twice as far here.