In town I'd rather have my AC - particularly (!?) if I can find a good pleated filter and install it in the intake air plenum to catch the pollen and other allergens. Most are good for 30K - 50K miles, YMMV. Now, as to fresh air; on a nice day in the country I'd love to keep the windows down. Even the feed lots and barnyards don't bother me. I lived in Amarillo near the world's largest feed lot, and when the wind was right (or more accurately, wrong), you barricaded yourself indoors. I finally moved out of that swank apartment to a refurbed military housing unit out at the old air base just to get away from it.
When I moved, leaving the Texas Panhandle before dawn on a chilly spring Sunday morning, when the sunrise caught up with me I was down around Bowie and I rolled down the windows. There was actual humidity out there, something totally lacking on the high plains, and things smelled. There was newly-cut hay, the earthy smell of fresh-turned soil, and the scents of trees and wildflowers - it was like breathing in an exotic stew of scents absent on the dry high plains. Staying on the 2-lane, I didn't bother to turn on the AC until I was back in Houston.
If you've been cooped (couped?) up too long in that four-wheel cage, driving in nice weather with the windows down and the wind in your face is hard to beat. Crawling on a baking freeway in the evening commute? Give me A/C . . . on HIGH and RECIRCULATE, please.