I've lived in these places. I wouldn't call them "hopeless, jobless wasteland[s]," but they generally have much poorer metrics. I made a living outside the Bay

I've lived in these places. I wouldn't call them "hopeless, jobless wasteland[s]," but they generally have much poorer metrics. I made a living outside the Bay Area the first 6 years of my career after leaving academia. My view is the quality of the jobs is poorer, the treatment of IT workers is worse (it's bad enough having second-class status even in the Bay Area but it's much worse, generally, elsewhere), the salaries are lower even taking into account cost of living, and the quantity of available jobs at any given skill level above the tech equivalent of "semi-skilled labor" is generally lower per capita. But it is possible (obviously) for software developers to earn a salary doing a job there.