Do you think it would be possible to start YCombinator prime elsewhere in the country? If we put together many of the same factors, angels, infrastructure, good mentors, could this be replicated, albeit on a smaller scale?
It comes down to people, money, and time. Exporting Silicon Valley might be the wrong approach. Another place must have its own culture and value system in order to survive and those qualities can't be borrowed.
Boulder, Boston, Austin, and to some extent NYC and a few other east coast (of the US) cities (my heart belongs to Baltimore) have burgeoning scenes, but each is different than SV. Where they don't try to simply mimic, I think they're more likely to find success.
You need "enough" of all of the critical factors and then you have to overcome whatever penalty you incur from missing some of the "nice to haves". Considering the odds against success even with all of the stars aligned ....
Seriously - unless your customers care where you are, why are you so resistant to going to where the odds of success are highest?
It's okay to value things other than success, but you're competing with people who are focussed on success. How are you going to overcome that advantage?