Disclaimer: Not mine.
Yuffie: Anecdotal Evidence
Yuffie has never been to Midgar. When she left Wutai, she stuck to the forests, only approaching settlements when she needed more food, or medicine, or stuff like that. She preferred it that way. She didn't have to see how ShinRa had changed the people of other towns.
Aerith laughed at her for that view. People were just people everywhere, she said. Some of them good, some of them bad. But she agreed that ShinRa was, on the whole, bad, and had done bad things to communities.
Yuffie asked what ShinRa had done to her community. Aerith described a place she loved, a ruined church where she grew flowers, and that she hid from ShinRa in. She described her foster mother's grief over her husband's death, and the state of the slums in sorrow.
Curious about the city now, she asked Barret about it. "Rotten to the core" was all he said.
Tifa was as sad as Aerith about the state of the slums. Her overview was perhaps more politically informed, the view of an activist. Tifa tried to keep her voice level, but her rage at the destruction of one of the suburbs- Sector Seven?- was very real. Her voice choked up and everything.
When she asked Vincent about Midgar, he said nothing. Moping bastard.
Cloud didn't know much either. When he'd been in Midgar, he'd been more interested in running away from people trying to kill him, an idea Yuffie thought was eminently sensible.
Red had spent most of his time in Midgar in Hojo's lab. He said, very politely, that he felt he was unqualified to make a judgment based on that experience. Fair enough. She wouldn't want to relive or talk about Hojo doing experiments on her either.
Cid was more forthcoming. He seemed to have extensive knowledge of the city, both on top of the plate and under it. But then she realised that he was just talking about the various bars and dives he'd been to. Tifa jokingly teased him about never visiting hers.
In the end, Cait Sith told her most about life in Midgar. He seemed to know everything about it. He told her that conditions in the slums were bad too, but he said that something could be done, that the city was not without redeeming features. She asked about that, and he said he'd spent a lot of time in Midgar earlier. For a toy mog riding a stuffed cat, he certainly could tell a story. He'd sounded pretty human as he'd done so, too.
When she finally did see Midgar, she was impressed. It was just as huge and wrecked as Tifa had told her. Cait Sith's view was harder to see. Red told her she'd come around to it someday.