Sans CA taxes, this is relative to the increase of wealth you've accumulated. So yes in the absolute it's higher, but relatively speaking you've still are earning more money in liquidity during the transaction.
> This has to do with the actual cost of a move, that is, the difference in your net worth at the end of the day once all the dust settles.
I think I finally understand your position now. The cost isn't prohibitive, it's the negative impact on your wealth. Which is true. The reason I and others are reacting strongly to your position is because your conflating transactional costs (expenses, fees, etc) with wealth (accumulation of assets). Two very different things that use a common medium to interact (i.e. currency).
Here's the predicament. Your implying that you can transfer assets (wealth) without any transactional costs. This is just not how the market for any asset transfer works (stocks, cash, etc), because someone or some system has to be setup to broker the transaction. What your essentially complaining about is why you have to pay fees to complete an asset transfer. I know very few markets were transferring assets doesn't incur a fee. I don't know what to tell you other than this is basically economics 101.
CA taxes on the other hand - that's something to complain about. CA taxes inadvertently nudge people to hold on to property longer, reducing supply and thus driving overall prices up.