I remember when the appeal of the US was being surrounded by people at the top of their field.
From the Asian perspective perhaps, from Europe the appeal was/is the willingness to innovate and the sense of adventure. The more money people earn the more risk they are willing to take, the opposite of Europe.
We don’t have boffins here. That’s the Brits.
It's kind of retro in the UK too. Bit of a WW2 term.