Then, consider that much of compensation at higher levels is RSUs you've already been allocated for the next four years anyways.
Yeah. Anecdotally, the adjustment in pay within the USA at Big Cos is much lower than the differences in housing costs between SFBA and everywhere else.
(Between countries is another matter though; several years ago I've heard of folks in Europe making 2x/3x less than their American peers. Not sure what the situation is today.)
From what I've read elsewhere on the internet stopping the flow of CA programmers would actually be a god-sent to people who were raised in Nowhere, Montana, the gentrification taking place in the last few years has had very annoying societal side-effects for said local people. As far as I could understood Colorado is already a lost case, though.