We live West of CL and that was the beach we always went to. It used to be really busy. Please disregard the most popular statement as it was my opinion and probably wrong.
There are some good things about CL. The Surf is a treasure and deserves a visit; Main Street has some nice restaurants; North Shore drive is very pretty.
Yeah...this was probably most accessible to you given where you were coming from, but even City Beach (which is right off of downtown....and not as big) is busier than Macintosh.