Are you me? I also work in ML and am raising a child in a small seaside town. Your comments are very similar to my experience. I was told going remote and leaving the city was career suicide, but it's been quite the opposite. The amount of assumed travel (pre-covid) was a bummer and often happened at inconvenient times at multiple companies, but I still wouldn't trade it. I never talk about tech outside of work, which is nice, although a little lonely at times. In some ways I think my worldview has broadened by not living in a tech hub anymore. Work-life balance is super healthy, I don't spend as much time in front of screens anymore either. The pros totally outweigh the cons in my opinion.