>As such, your using them as examples or counter examples of developing countries is confusing (at least to me), and I think is misinterpreting the meaning of the original statement.

Indeed. Me coming back to Russia was nowhere near a typical "downshifting" case. If I were to compete with locals on the job market, I wouldn't have lasted long. People who can ace ACM olympics prequalification tests are only passing as junior devs here.