While I certainly understand the appeal of tax arbitrage, California has at least one thing going for it. Unlike most states, it generally disallows non-compete clauses as a matter of public policy.
Tech thrives on the mobility of talent, so it's no coincidence that California is where the tech industry thrives. Almost 70 years ago, eight engineers at Shockley Semiconductor had a better idea and left to start Fairchild Semiconductor. That led to Intel, AMD, and National Semiconductor, later spawning NVIDIA, SGI, Qualcomm, and ultimately creating trillions of dollars in wealth. No other state will ever overtake California's dominance here unless it allows for that same mobility of talent. Almost every state tries to _attract_ billionaires these days, but this is one reason why most states can't _create_ them.
California has a lot going for it. Great geography, lots of university, great talent, talent with many different backgrounds, momentum from industry. Non compete non-enforcement also exist in places like North Dakota (which has nearly as a high a GDP/cap), but they can't offer a lot of these other things.
In many ways California is just being capitalist like the "actual" capitalist and taxing whatever the market will bear. It will probably bear a lot in California. There's no need for them to dress it up as a social project, it's just the ruthless gears of the state run by people with personalities nearly identical to the CEOs that would also do the same thing in their shoes.
The poor will continue to suffer the ~same fate and the friends of politicians will continue to be enriched. The middle class sees maybe the ever tiniest budge from one or two billionaires pulling out along with whatever jobs their capital provides, but otherwise their lives basically move on as usual and they can preach about their support for the poor using someone else's dime at almost no risk to themselves.
Tech thrives on the mobility of talent, so it's no coincidence that California is where the tech industry thrives. Almost 70 years ago, eight engineers at Shockley Semiconductor had a better idea and left to start Fairchild Semiconductor. That led to Intel, AMD, and National Semiconductor, later spawning NVIDIA, SGI, Qualcomm, and ultimately creating trillions of dollars in wealth. No other state will ever overtake California's dominance here unless it allows for that same mobility of talent. Almost every state tries to _attract_ billionaires these days, but this is one reason why most states can't _create_ them.