I’m looking to GTFO of metro Phoenix, and have been browsing Zillow.
What areas of the Rim Country are worth looking into?

Sedona is nice.

I don't think Sedona counts as "rim country"

Pine, Strawberry, Christopher Creek, Tonto Creek, Clint's well, happy Jack, Forest lakes.

There are some Payson zip communities nestled up below the rim as well.

I am partial to Pine...
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Pine/Strawberry is also about 20-30mi from the geographic center of AZ.

Depends on what temperature range you want and how much you want to spend.

As to temperature, one of the reasons I’ve had it with the low desert is the six ten month summers.
As to budget, I’d like to keep it under $200k
I have seen (online) some Payson area properties that might work.
Ideally I’d like to maintain a two-hour radius from Phoenix (ongoing medical treatment considerations)

Put it this way... are there areas I should avoid?

In my opinion,it's the best of what the Rim has to offer.

One of the cool things I can say is that since we live in Chandler off 87 all we have to do is make a left out of our neighborhood and then drive 100 mi, then right and a few miles into the neighborhood where the family cabin is. <2hrs

I drove through Strawberry last weekend.  Very nice, almost didn't seem like I was still in AZ.

The two hour thing really puts a limit on things. Heading up 87, I have to agree, Pine would be my first choice.
There's a lot of pockets of stuff around Payson as well, but it takes some hunting and to be honest,
while Payson is cooler, it's not that much cooler.

Just throwing out some unconventional, not-quite-rim options that also fit with the two hour limit, but
up I-17 instead:

If you don't mind a long-ass (28 mile), scary single-lane mountain dirt road, there's some bargains to be
had in Crown King (because a lot of people do mind.) Crown King is at 6,000 feet and some of the places there are
over 7,000, so it's pretty cool there.

There's some other pockets in the area, like some homes for sale on the mountains to the west of Mayer
that are also in the high country. (Check out Breezy Pines Rd or Big Bug Mesa Rd in Mayer listings,
you'll see what I mean.)

If easy highway access matters to you, though, you're really going to be stuck with the short list of
communities just north of Payson everyone has mentioned. You might add Christopher Creek to the
east of Payson, there's a small pocket of cabins both north and south of the 260 there that's probably
at the very limit of two hours from parts of the Phoenix (e.g. Fountain Hills and Mesa near the 87.)

I'm a part-time Piner and I love it up there.  I never want to come back to the valley, especially in the summer!

It is so hard to leave.

Anything just north of payson is a good start

Off the 260, or nothing, for me personally...

Anything in a dry creek bed or were you have to drive through a dry creek bed to get to your place.

About 8 years ago the area we were interested in had 72 houses listed on Zillow with an average price less than $120k.
After a couple of weeks of looking we realized on our own that all but 5 of those houses were in a flood plain or on the other side of the flood plain without any bridge to get out when flooded.

Not a single real estate agent told us that the houses they were showing us were listed as being in a flood plain or that you could be stuck on the other side of the flood plain for weeks.
But when I asked them about it they would then admit it and say "but it hardly ever floods here".
I later found out it had flooded the worst in 35 years the year before.

The house we purchased is not affected by the flood plain but cost more than twice the average.

@azcheesehead  Where was that development?

OP: In addition to going east of Payson along the 260, there's a lot more nice country to check out up the 87/260 as one goes north toward Clint's Well/Happy Jack area.

Are you willing to say, in a general way, where this was at?

There are a bunch of areas up there like that.

Like along Houston Mesa Rd out of North Payson(near where that family was killed by a flash flood recently) and along Tonto and Christopher Creek.  But that is what you get when you want to live along Creek.

Tonto Creek.