I’ve had many, many cats over the years in a variety of places, such as the suburbs, the country (where they multiplied like crazy and wen ended up with over 50 cats), and in a city. In my experience, it totally depends on the cat.
For instance, when I was younger, we lived in the burbs. I had three cats. One was a barn cat that I got when she was just a kitten, she eventually had a kitten of her own, and the third cat was an indoor cat. The latter cat was a very… prissy cat. She wasn’t really built for the wild, she was way too pampered and neurotic. They were all indoor cats until we moved to a farm in the country. My mom decided that there would be no more cats in the house and they were to go live in the barns. I begged for her to let the neurotic one stay inside… I just knew she wouldn’t be able to handle the change, especially since it was a change of both moving locations and going from indoor to outdoor. No dice. We moved, and three days after being there, the cat was gone. Vanished. I have no idea if she wandered off and someone took her in, or if she was hit by a car, or if she tried to find her way back to the other house. (since cats are wont to do that when you move them from one location to the other; has to do with magnetic fields in the planet, or something) I was very sad, but not surprised. She was not made for outdoors.
Other cats have made that transition just fine, so it depends on the animal. In my opinion, it’s not a great idea to switch them. If they are indoors, keep them that way. Don’t force them to change the surroundings, if they are used to being outdoors, they might be miserable if you make them stay inside. But again, it depends on the cat. If your cat is getting on in years, unwell, declawed, or something else, you might want to bring them in just to keep them safe. Well, if you declaw them, DEFINITELY keep them in, it’s too cruel to toss them outside when they have no means to defend themselves.
Another interesting note, the barn cat I mentioned above, when we moved to the farm and she got to wander of her own accord, she would disappear for long periods of time, doing who knows what. She was a wild thing, loved to explore. One time she was gone a YEAR AND A HALF, and then she just walked up the drive one day, like nothing was wrong. No idea where she was, but I somehow knew she was ok wherever she was. Some cats can handle outside, some can’t.