That is exactly how I feel. I tried to support Leeds as a kid, but there was nothing really there and after the Nix came along I realised that there was no way I could claim a team from somewhere I'd only visited when I was 10. All of those clubs with 100 years of history were once anonymous little teams with no gravitas behind their name. I was at the birth of a team from my city, playing professional football, and that was and is very exciting to me. The Lancastrian factory workers of the 1880s may not be remembered by name in their clubs' histories, but without them those histories would not exist today. We are part of the history, in fact a proportionally bigger part than a fan going to the games of a 130 year old club.
Edit: I would like to add something of a defence to ex-pats who don't get behind the Nix. It might not even so much be the history of their hometown club they care about, it might be the history of the town and their family and what that means to them. My first ancestors in NZ arrived in Wellington in January 1840. If you include my great-great grandfather, who was born on the boat and had his birth registered in Wellington, I am in the sixth consecutive generation to be born in and spend most of my life in the Wellington region. Wellington is my home in a way I imagine it is for a lot of Leodensians who support Leeds United, or Dubrovnians that support Dover Athletic. If they move to New Zealand, it might not really be the lack of history behind the Nix, it might be the lack of connection to Wellington that they feel they need to get behind the team, whether they know it or not.