I don't work in those states but I've had plenty of clients who live in high cost of living areas and the solution is to move somewhere you can actually afford. It's not benefiting you in any way to work in a place you can't afford.
You're right in that it doesn't benefit them financially. Living in some of the few spots in the continental united states that allow for a more passively-active lifestyle (temerate enough to spend more time outdoors without making it an activity, reasonable transit/bike infrastructure, the ability to walk instead of driving everywhere) carries some pretty hefty health benefits, especially as it compounds over a lifetime.
I know software engineers in SF that don’t even consider trying to buy a house there. I also know generationally wealthy folks who rent from the same building I do in NYC.
NYC and SF are major outliers in this discussion - in my experience, home ownership isn’t as much of an inherent end goal there as it is elsewhere in NA.
Did you mean bartender? Barrister is a lawyer in the UK and makes a bit more.
Barrista, I'm guessing, as at Starbucks?
Who do you think should be renting if not them? Students? Unemployed people?