Visited SF recently. Did things always close early?
Orphan Andy's, Safeway on Market, and Pinecrest diner are no longer 24/7. Sparky's closed forever (a 24/7 diner). It's Tops Coffee Shop stopped staying open late and then eventually closed forever. Corner/liquor stores that used to be open late are closing well before midnight. Kowloon Tong Dessert Cafe used to be open until 2am most nights, but now they always close at midnight.
Higher paid jobs like healthcare workers, no problem.
Most blue collar labor types living in the East Bay are in the Alameda County flatlands (parts of Newark, parts of Fremont, inner city Oakland, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Albany) or North Contra Costa County (Pittsburg, Antioch, Richmond).
But most of the unskillled labor underclass you see in the Bay Area cities tend to drive in/Bart in/ACE in from San Joaquin Country, Sonoma County, or Monterey County.
And yes some parts of the East Bay are expensive, especially the neighborhoods on the hills or Piedmont/Claremont and further inland like Walnut Creek or Orinda etc. But let's be real, most of the East Bay is one big suburban wasteland.
There are a lot of folks living in East Oakland (with roommates, often) who work in SF restaurants.
There most definitely has been a decline in quality of healthcare due to decline in quantity and quality of healthcare workers relative to patients in the recent past.
Even though a job might be higher paid, it does not imply the pay to quality of life at work is sufficiently high to incentivize the desirable amount of labor sellers to pursue it.