[lmm]

Yes and no. Different places are better for different things, but some places do combine a lot of positive factors, and some places do combine a lot of negative factors; I suspect there really are pairs of cities where you can say that X is just better than Y for most reasonable criteria.

Even if you don't believe that, many people on this site have the choice between London and San Francisco, so it's well worth exploring the differences between them here.