> I would never recommend visiting Dallas, it's a dull city, but as far as places to live it's far surpassed my expectations.
I think this point is key. When your day-to-day is spent staring at a laptop, it doesn't really matter where you live.
I used to live in NYC. I loved it; great city to be in your 20s. But I left due to COVID. Since then, I've returned to visit a handful of times and realized that visiting NYC is probably better than living there. In a long weekend, I'm able to visit great restaurants, see a show, and catch up with friends. Essentially, I pack the social activities that I would have spread out over a month into 3 days. Then in my day-to-day, I don't have to pay Manhattan rent, fight the crowds on the subway, or deal with all of the friction the city has.