Just to give you an example - in Los Angeles, the county assess a tax on unsecured property that has absolutely no bearing on your revenue. That's a tax on your office equipment, furniture, machines, etc. The city also assess a tax on revenue, not profit, in excess of $100,000. And even if you don't make a dime in profit, Corps and LLCs still pay a minimum state tax. If you own a building for your business you're also going to pay property tax, and if you don't you're going to pay it in the form of higher rent as well.

To your last point, you need to add an "if" to make it accurate. California is a far better choice than the Midwest or South if you can start a small business with high enough margins to cover the much higher costs of basically everything.

The minimum LLC franchise fee is $800. A real business can afford that, a pretend business cannot.

Double-Irish structures don't work to shield US income. They never have, so US companies can't use them to reduce their US taxation either, regardless of size.

And finally, you chose a pass-through form of taxation, meaning you chose to be taxed as an individual instead of as a separate entity. That's on you--not on California. That same choice would screw you over pretty much everywhere there's a state income tax--meaning all the states where people actually want to live.