There's a lot of things that California gets right. It's too bad housing isn't one of them.
Ideally, you want to improve the latter without compromising the former, but this is made politically difficult because the people gaining from the former often aren't willing to take any risk to improve the latter, while those on the downside of the latter are relatively politically powerless, so the status quo is sticky.
The local organic produce is very good too.
Typically the fees are proportional to the facilities provided. CA often provides well maintained and regularly cleaned flush toilets and even hot showers at the state parks w/campgrounds, this is far less common in other states.
CA does it so well I generally prefer camping there over staying in hotels. It's typically too much of a hassle elsewhere in the country, where KOA "campgrounds" are often the only options with such facilities.
I've also done a lot of day hikes in CA state parks where there's no fee. You just park at a trail head and off you go, and these sometimes even have pit toilets at the lot, still with no fee at all.
Your perspective strikes me as misinformed.
+Daily overtime for hourly workers
Notably, California had a budget surplus despite a relative lack of high-profile IPOs the past several years.
It helps that many of CA's biggest industries are at the high-end of the value spectrum (i.e., tech, biotech, Hollywood, and video games).