[alephnerd]

It's the economics.

Countries like India, China, Israel, and South Korea also have tech industries that can pay EU level salaries (and in Israel's case US level) despite a cost of living comparable to Eastern Europe (excluding Israel).

The reason is those counties and the US have an oversized software+hardware industry with a very mature VC+PE+IPO market within the tech sector or a pipeline to the US's financial sector, and are thus able to make 8-9x multiples of revenue based on a single IC.

Most of the EU doesn't have software+hardware companies with comparable revenue multipliers. That said, in certain niches (eg. Pharmaceuticals, Finance, Defense) in some regional employment markets like those in the UK, Denmark, Netherlands, and Ireland might be able to offer US comparable salaries (not SV level but a decent $70-100k base)