I don't think the almost anywhere assumption holds for several reasons - a bad cultural climate can be a sure turn off (anti-intellecutalism and open bigotry), a "good" one can be a pleasure, and employees prefer to have plenty of alternative employers.

There are multiple reasond - security from layoffs or bad workplaces, job-hopping is the defacto way to raise salary, and it also keeps them having to compete for them some.

A middle of nowhere job sets off "it's a trap" alarm bells consciously or unconsciously as an isolating move.

That said there is a lot of range between "most expensive areas in California" and "cheap one company towns".

I suspect sprawling out to network edges would maximize benefits for costs similar to Palo Alto once being the cheap option.