I think you just argued against a straw man. The article didn't even really talk about salaries. This is about where people are moving from and to.

This is about tracking "business formation as well as employment and education in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics"

There was no call to move there, or statement that they are better places. But surely there is something interesting and possibly something to learn about by looking at migrations of people, especially STEM companies and employees.