In fairness, it seems very unlikely that he only applied to jobs 1) in his city, 2) at companies that "have a position open for what [he does]".

He likely also applied to jobs that he wasn't super pumped up about, in case the job (or other factors regarding the job) turned out to be awesome.

Unsolicited advice: I'm not sure if you're actually looking for a job (or will be in the future), but try not to limit yourself so much before even starting. It feels like your comment had a lot of excuses/reasons why it won't work for you/your industry. It's not true: getting a job can be a grind. Sometimes that's just what you have to do. When you've applied to dozens of companies, or turned down dozens of offers, you'll have a much much better idea of what's possible what isn't worth the effort (plus you'll have a ton of very useful experience and skills because of it, to boot).

As a counterpoint, my experience has been that this is only effective if you are looking for a position that is already in high demand. It's relatively easy to go to a meetup and meet other engineers who will recommend you at their company when it inevitably comes up that more engineers are needed on the team. In other positions like, say, marketing or finance, it just doesn't happen that way nearly as much. Postings will often get hundreds of applications within a few days and having a casual acquaintance from meetup-type groups is of little benefit compared to desirable brand names and keywords on your resume.

>I don't even know if I can reasonably say that there are ~500 companies in my city who a) have a position open for what I do and b) I'd want to work for.

That's about 2 applications a day, which isn't too crazy. The job market for software people is deep if you live in the right place, 500 is a lot but not surprising to me.