[version_five]

Location correlates with a lot of other stuff. I think people underestimate the relevance of that other stuff.

If you have US education and experience, you can be living somewhere else and have access to the same remote opportunities (for the most part, baring admin stuff) as someone in the US.

If you don't have "western" experience and education, you don't have a leg up.

These are just simple examples. The point is everything else being equal, physical location almost certainly matters less. But everything else is not equal, and so location still strongly predicts opportunity.