I have also several times encountered the idea that "there are no more software jobs, they all went overseas". Of course that has no basis in reality, but that is one of the themes about the tech industry that is perpetuated by various forms of media.
One of the smarter guys in my physics class was convinced that programming was a dead end career. I was perplexed since he read a lot of science and tech news and seemed pretty up to date on things in general.
You make it sound like the midwest is riding around in buggy whips and without electricity. You really think people haven't seen The Social Network? That entire movie was about the arrogance of Zuckerberg and what a special little snowflake he was.
It's not SF, but there's a really nice tech scene here in NYC. Who cares about the finance people? I don't care if NYC's #1 most famous industry is tech. Rank #2 or #3 or #4 is fine too, just so long as there's a decent enough amount of it going on to enjoy.