I think most of us from elsewhere in the English-speaking tech world know very much what the Bay Area is like. I can't speak for Australians, but most Canadian tech workers have been there many times. But only some of us choose to move there even tho NAFTA makes it fairly trivial to do so. And many just end up coming back.

I don't think the SF Bay Area is a post-apocalyptic hellscape. Most of urban California is... fine.

It's just that when one immigrates to go take a job there, one isn't just immigrating to the Bay Area. One is immigrating to the United States of America. And ... that's a much bigger kettle of fish.