Plenty of people in tech moved from Silicon Valley to Austin to get a better tax / quality of life deal, even in my social circle. Remote working becoming widely available really made a difference.

I'm in a completely different part of the world, but for similar reasons I ended up with a few friends in tech who moved to the same part of the world - and I've also met similar profiles to ours, attracted by the same reasons.

Where did you move to if you don't mind me asking? The chasm between SV tech comp and various "completely different part of the world" is massive. Were you able to meet your employer in the middle?