US citizens playing geoarbitrage is an entirely different scenario than folks competing for a US work visa.

I don't follow. If US citizens are routinely willing to live there then it must be an okay place provided you have the money. Thus locals would presumably be happy with an international remote position if it payed enough. So the question remains, why would a fully remote netflix position have need of the H1B program? There must be some compelling financial reason for what they're doing.