Many companies are plopping offices right next to university clusters, which is a good solution if you need both talent and cost efficiencies. Consider the research Triangle in North Carolina as one example.
It’s probably shorter to just say SFs appeal is largely to fresh grads who want to party in a city and industry consolidation - both the consolidation of actual tech companies and the financial services that service them, like VCs. SF does not have any monopoly on fresh grads and no longer represents a disproportionate consolidation of the tech industry which is now very spread out.
> You are stuck making trade offs wherever you base your office, the market remains sort of efficient like that.
Absolutely there are tradeoffs. I believe people are struggling to realize the entrepreneurial tradeoffs of SF have changed (as much as I don’t want them to as a local resident), and now disproportionately encourage cynicism - oh wait AI will turn everything around never mind.