I grew up in the midwest and hope I never have to live there again. But I also hate California (hot, even in winter, way too sunny, smells awful about 80% of the time, probably in part because of the heat). I found that places like Washington, Oregon, and Montana are much more to my liking.

Moral of the story: everyone has different preferences and things they value, so assuming that any particular person would want to live in any particular place is pretty foolish. As a corollary, assuming that anyone talented will want to live in California (because everyone wants to live in California) seems like a pretty bad strategy.