Anecdotal evidence: I moved to CA twice as an engineer.

Once to get my masters after college. Stayed for 13 years. Left during COVID.

Second time to raise kids.

Our reasons include weather, intellectual atmosphere, safety (in many regards), schools, and job opportunities.

The geo area sandwiched between Berkeley and Stanford is only rivaled by Boston. You think Stanford and Berkeley are in the Bay because they’re told to?

And I would also question: what’s the point of living in US if you’re not in California? Once you decide to not live in CA, a bunch of other countries rank better than other US states. Such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand.

If I were to not live in CA, even the imperial units would quickly become annoying.