[kitsunesoba]

Exactly this.

It’s also worth noting that this is true for people who are well past the “foot in the door” segment of their careers — even if one is able to move to a low CoL area thanks to remote-friendly policy at their current company, by doing so they’ll likely be locking themselves to said company for an indefinite period and greatly diminishing their chances at getting raises. Of course that doesn’t matter to everybody, but generally speaking it’s against one’s best interest to move away from the city despite savings on housing, commute, etc.