I overall agree, except for one important caveat: one of the main incentives for high-tech investment in France is the "crédit d'impôt recherche", "tax break for research". It's very effective, as it pays ~ 50% of salaries + charges for employees performing R&D duty.

But the fiscal services systematically target those who take this tax break, and it's pretty random whether they'll cancel it retroactively, up to 3 years after you received it. For startups, which often spend most of their money on R&D salaries, such a recall is often fatal. And qualifying for it makes or breaks many business plans. So it adds a considerable risk to an activity that's more than risky enough, in a country that already suffers from risk averseness.

Unfortunately, the department of taxes & finances a.k.a. "Bercy" is where the best graduates from ÉNA [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_nationale_d%27admini...] go, and ÉNA is also the alma mater of most French politicians: finance civil administrators often control politicians more than the other way around, so the latter don't seem capable to control the formers' destructive power.