There are a lot of good things about SV, but there are also some good reasons to get out and go to smaller hubs - stuff like Boulder, Portland, and other places like that where life is more enjoyable.
His wanting to stay in a particular geographic area plus his desire to only invest in projects he can drive to is limiting him. That's fine. I'm not even suggesting he's complaining about a talent shortage. But others are.
Might he not have a similar quality of life and have access to some other great companies to invest in within an hour's drive and have less investment competition should he choose to move to, say, Louisiana? Or Mississippi? Or Tennessee? Or Texas?
Why would someone in a position to make angel investments move to a random new city just to have less investor competition?
Edit: it's no coincidence that the startup hub in Texas is in Austin, the only place in Texas I'm aware of that has a non-conformist culture.
"He feels" is where I got emotion from.
I don't think it is quite as conspiratorial as you make it out to be. I was speaking to an active angel investor last night. He said he won't do a deal that is much more than an hours drive away. He feels like he can't really participate (as an advisor) to a company that he can't easily reach.
It is not unlikely that many (most?) of the Silicon Valley investors feel the same way.