And Europe isn't expensive to live? Canada? Australia? All of them have very high CoL in population centers. Especially tech hubs. The only place that's significantly out of whack is CA and to be honest, much of the time it's still worth it. Go remote and get the best of both worlds is quite common and easy.
The absolute number doesn't matter much if the expenses of living in the STEM-riddled areas are just as high, if not higher.
And Europe isn't expensive to live? Canada? Australia? All of them have very high CoL in population centers. Especially tech hubs. The only place that's significantly out of whack is CA and to be honest, much of the time it's still worth it. Go remote and get the best of both worlds is quite common and easy.