You'd think they'd want to hire someone in philli who's willing to work two days a week onsite and the rest from home but no. It's like I have the plague whenever I mention it.
I have a similar issue. My attempt at a solution is to build a portfolio so compelling that employers will hire me for (mostly) remote work without qualms. Hopefully the market for developers is still strong when my portfolio is strong.
Failing that, I guess I'll move back to civilization.
I think that there's a certain dynamic with people that work in person that doesn't happen as much remotely; In person someone could walk into a random conversation after overhearing an idea, start adding their own twist to it, and eventually someone starts scribbling on a whiteboard and a new iteration of your product is born. I just don't see that happening as easily over groupware.
Having everyone on site is almost essential for an early stage startup, but the more established the business the less frequent the dynamic you describe, imo. I think many companies would benefit from hiring a few remote workers. It is one of the many ways a company can win the war on talent. I think one underrated aspect of Google's success in attracting top talent is that they do R&D in many more locations than e.g. Microsoft. Also IIRC the main engineer on Chrome/V8 started working for Google from his home in Denmark.
Failing that, I guess I'll move back to civilization.