[personZ]

Exactly how the conversation would go if it ever happened to me.

Look at the entire business model of Silicon Valley -- the vast majority of hires are fresh graduates. Party because of ageism, but also because fresh graduates are the ones who are willing to uproot their lives and move to some place with a not particularly compelling quality of life, with enormous costs of living, just to get a job. The reality is that the Valley isn't necessarily drawing the best of the best from across the continent: They're drawing the ones who are willing to move, which overwhelmingly means people just starting their adult lives.

So if someone wants to hire new graduates, being in a more remote location might be completely tenable, if not optimal, to their strategy. It is a filter.

And then there are remote workers. I live on a sprawling property in the rural extents of the exurbs of Toronto. If I worked a traditional SD job it would be a terrible commute, but I do the vast majority of my work completely remotely, with redundant high speed connections and some fat computing hardware. There is absolutely nothing that being in the center of it offers me. On the flip side I often have peers and clients to my property for BBQs and a good time.