You can argue the degree to which non-competes have contributed to Silicon Vslley success but there are a ton of companies elsewhere in the country with various degrees of non/compete enforcement that have had and have considerable success in various technology sectors. Another example is MA which historically did allow non-compete enforcement (now somewhat weakened) which spawned the whole Route 128 computer industry and more recently biotech/pharma.

Although allowed, I only once had to sign a pretty limited non-compete with an MA company. And people jumped between the various minicomputer companies all the time although tenures tended to be longer for other reasons.