What I can't figure out is why major companies, big enough to hire across the country and even the world, don't make more of a point of hiring staff virtually anywhere other than the Valley.

If you're in software, you need a presence in the Valley. The Valley attracts the exceptionally talented and ambitious, you want to hire some of them, and most of them won't leave. Even Microsoft eventually caved and opened an office there. OK, I get that.

But surely those who aren't wild talents -- and really, even at elite shops, most aren't -- are cheaper elsewhere?