The Bay Area in the early 2000's and even into the early 2000-teens was NOT like this.
You could go out to lunch and have a technical chat and the people at the table next to you might chime in with a solution!
When you get enough passionate people and pack them into one location things get interesting for them (networking, friendships etc)... Much of the passion is gone (lots of people see tech as a path to a paycheck), and everyone wants to WFH.