It seems like the sweet spot is around the middle of the list - places like Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Salt Lake City, etc. Good salaries and lower cost of living than California, but you will have all the quality of life features of a bigger city. I guess that's why those middle-tier cities on this list are also at the top of the fastest growing places in the country.

I can tell you from experience Baltimore is shit. Corrupt as hell and crime ridden.

Bentonville has terrible traffic because everyone commutes from surrounding cities (barely able to call them cities imo), there's only one expressway N-S, public transit may as well be non-existent, and the bike trails and sidewalks turn into grass, ditches, or roads without warning on major thoroughfares. And no one here knows how to deal with pedestrians because it's too spread out and hot to walk around. Fayetteville is better because it's a university town, but not much if you're used to real metro areas. Grew up here, moved to Seattle, came back and I hate it.

Edit: Also the only major employer in Bentonville is Wal-Mart. They own the town, and almost all employers in town service Wal-Mart in some way. There's not a single other major retailer in city limits, there are two options for groceries: Walmart and a local chain of grocers. I guess they did recently put an Aldi in, but it's outside city limits.

That'd depend on what you'd want for QOL, different people value different things. Myself, I think quality of life in Chicago is so much higher than in BA that I'd take it even at significantly less money. Austin seems similar. Omaha on the other hand...