There is tech beyond SV. My current company is distributed between a second tier city in Croatia and a semi-rural town in NZ. We are in the end-of-life tech, and are taking the Advisor track at Startup School.
Times when you had no tech other than ol' skool corporate IT beyond SV, London, and a few other spots are gone. My current city, Osijek, a second tier city has some amazing tech that is quite prominent globally. Farmeron (AgTech) was founded here and later acquired, https://www.netocratic.com/farmeron-closes-gideon-brother-11... . Infobip (telco infrastructure software) was founded in a semi rural town in Istria region in Croatia.
Don't overlook Eastern Europe. Estonia, Czech, Romania, Poland got amazing tech scenes, and the life is good.
If you work remotely, options are even more abundant.
Don't mind that SV is actually quite vulnerable and gets hit badly by recessions, bursts, etc.
As of the US. New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, are all quite livable.