Agreed on both counts. I think I'm a great engineer (not so sure about "best") but my family/community are the most important things in my life and I would not sacrifice that to work on something sexy and new. Additionally, having spent a little bit of time in the suburbs of Detroit (Auburn Hills and Dearborn mostly) I found the area to be absolutely gorgeous and filled with things to do (again probably more for folks with families). Granted this was in Spring. I hear the winters are tough.

Yeah, that's a pretty poor analysis across the board. That great engineers require a sexy thing to work on is empirically false, that engineers won't move to Detroit is historically false, that there is some small cadre of engineers you must monopolize in order to make electric vehicles shows a deep misunderstanding.

Also, vehicle R&D happens all over the world. Does the OP think GM or Toyota have a single R&D office in Detroit?