Yea, it's a meme but let's not exaggerate. When you consider total[1] tax burden, including property tax, income tax, sales and other taxes, California is high, but not the highest, and Texas is low but not the lowest.
There are many other states that also have lower taxes than California that don't have the massive cultural downsides of Texas. Honestly, if I were planning to move out of California (I probably never will) and wanted to pick a state to live in, there are a lot of factors that would come into play and taxes are probably not even top 5. It's just not that big a deal.
sales and property tax aren't trivial, and you'll get some weird cultural artifacts on either side of the Cascades -- literal Portlandia on one side, insane Idaho-militia-wannabes on the other.
There are many other states that also have lower taxes than California that don't have the massive cultural downsides of Texas. Honestly, if I were planning to move out of California (I probably never will) and wanted to pick a state to live in, there are a lot of factors that would come into play and taxes are probably not even top 5. It's just not that big a deal.
1: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-bur...