I think The answer might be that there were good developers in Ohio that for various reasons (family) didn’t want to move to the valley. They already accepted

I think The answer might be that there were good developers in Ohio that for various reasons (family) didn’t want to move to the valley. They already accepted a lower salary. They were comfortable passing up valuable networking opportunities in HCOL. Now the $200k in valley, doesn’t provide as much value as $125k in OHio. That’s one example. I’m sure there is some examples that support both ideas, but there are some that support Paying the same developer less In LCOL areas