I live in the Tidewater area and drive through peanut country frequently and I’ve never eaten, nor even seen, boiled peanuts. This is an old article from the Virginian-Pilot:
“The end product is a curious snack,
wildly popular in the Deep South, mildly popular here, widely disliked elsewhere.
"They have a following," said Kayleigh Felderman, manager of Stoney's Produce in Virginia Beach. "You start to recognize the boiled peanut people. People remember them from their childhood."
The problem with neophytes, according to the boiled crowd, is that they go in expecting classic peanut crunch and flavor, elements absent from the boiled snack. Instead, pinching the dark brown, soggy shells apart yields soft, salty nuggets with a flavor that's far more bean than peanut.”
https://www.pilotonline.com/food-drink/article_2d5189c6-09cb-504b-8269-6f4b5e059bf0.html