Yes, I've said exactly this a bunch of times. My advice to young programmers is always this: work for a while in a city with high salaries and lots of demand, then after some years when you are experienced and high value (genuinely so), make the jump to remote, move to a smaller, less expensive place and buy a house. I honestly think this is the best life advice I can give and I wish I'd done it a decade sooner than I did.

This is similar to my anecdote. I hit the local salary ceiling but was unable to move due to family obligations. That's how I became a remote worker.

If anybody living in Tulsa can do this, the arbitrage opportunity will at some point end and Tusla will get more expensive and SF less expensive.

Except that for whatever reason people don't do this so the advantage continues to exist. Possibly because there aren't enough remote jobs?

Also people may not want to live in Tulsa, even if they are better paid.

Not true. Not everyone is cut out for remote work. It needs a certain set of skills and a frame of mind which are not available to everyone or take time to develop.