It's not just the non-competes though.

California explicitly protects ownership of inventions made on your own time/equipment[0].

AFAIK other states tend to default to employer ownership of inventions.

This alone is a huge win for Cali when it comes to HN/maker type folks...

[0] https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2010/lab/2870-2872.h...