If you are going to transfer somewhere at the same pay rate, transfer somewhere cheaper and nicer than Seattle. Lots of options (I'm partial to northern New England, personally, as I like having proper winter).
But, I left Seattle because of the dreary weather I suffered from my whole life, so I understand.
Personally I just moved from Seattle to Boston. I'm conflicted on the two places. I really liked the outdoors areas in Seattle, commute was shorter and rent was also cheaper. But Boston has a lot of cool things too, food better, more interesting activities todo (other than outdoors but you can find it NH) and cycling infrastructure is poor compared to Seattle.
I'm not native of either place (from Montreal) so my experience is based on a few years of living in both.
Boston isn't exactly better in terms of winter sunlight that's for sure. Both are grayish in winters but summers are great (less humid in Seattle).
What did it for me is proximity to family. Being in the same timezone is huge.
Cool fact I learned recently, Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH area has one lowest unemployment rate for any metro area at 2.6%.
There's a lot going on just under the radar in the smaller college towns. Amherst/Northampton MA, Burlington in VT, Hanover/Lebanon in NH. A lot of what's going on is in fairly small shops that don't have job postings, but would create a position for the right candidate, which makes it hard to find them if you're not in the area, unfortunately, but there are definitely some medium-size firms, too. These have a very different feel from Boston, though, so maybe not what you're looking for.
I also know a few folks who live near me (Hanover/Lebanon) and commute to Boston or NYC (2-3 days a week, WFH the other days). This is a pretty sweet deal if you can make it happen.