Rents are a lot cheaper in Berlin. You don't need a car either. It's also a nicer city in general, I feel a lot safer in Berlin than in San Francisco.

German cities themselves are definitely much nicer than American cities. In fact, "much nicer" is an understatement, American cities usually feel like they were designed by people who hate cities and want everyone in them to suffer.

That said, US lifestyle/culture has its own set of advantages compared to Germany. German culture is surprisingly backwards for consumer software/internet stuff, for example.

You don't need to live in the valley. I make twice that much in Chicago which is very comparable to Berlin price wise.

And how does salaries (and work environment) in Chicago compare to SF/Berlin?

(Weather is probably comparable to Berlin though)

Salaries for devs in the US are insane compared to the rest of the world, I don't think they can be taken as a reference, especially as most people do not have an easy way to just choose to move there.

Pretty much guaranteed. Even startups pay more than that and GAFAM pays 150,000 to new grads and 300,000-350,000 to senior engineers [0].

[0]: https://www.levels.fyi/