-The weather here is so much nicer than in Canada, you may not want to move back...which may increase the size of stash you require to FIRE.
Cannot be emphasized enough. It's in the mid-70s today. (~23C) In February. A bit of an anomoly, but still. Even when it's cold, it essentially never gets below freezing.
Those of you talking about quality of life being less must be completely oblivious to what the rest of the hemisphere has to deal with for most of the year. If living in a smaller space decreases quality of life (dubious claim to me), then being able to go outside in mid-February in shorts should definitely help offset that.
Quality of life is an interesting concept, and it varies by the person.
I don't live in SV, but do live in Santa Barbara - so, think - similar cost of living (a little less these days), similar weather, better traffic, but lower salaries.
I feel that our quality of life here is good - I will go for a walk on my lunch break, and it's in the 80s. We went to the beach this weekend. My kids play outdoors at school and childcare, all year long. The availability of fresh food is amazing, and much of it local. It's easy to eat healthfully.
But...my <1150sf house was almost $800k, and in a crappy school district. The school district issue is a big one - we transferred from a bad one to a slightly less bad one. So, in addition to living in a house that most people would consider small (and we don't have a garage, and it's in a small city lot), we have to contend with the school district. This requires both money AND time.
And for most people, living here doesn't leave "extra". As my office mate and I discuss regularly - if we were living almost anywhere else (you know, not California) - we could afford - bigger homes, nicer cars, a boat, nice vacations - AND savings. And that's one thing that people mean when they talk about "quality of life" in CA being poor.
-Even with high incomes, you can't spend money on EVERYTHING that you want
-Traffic (less of an issue for me, but I gather bad for SV)
-Workload - I can't say, because I know know - but are the work expectations higher in SV because of the salaries? Are you making $200k for 40 hours a week, or is it 50 or 60? That's a big quality of life difference there.
For us, quality of life is different. Yes, I'd love a slightly bigger house in a better school district, but I love my neighbors and neighborhood. I can walk to the beach in under 30 minutes (it's 1.5 miles to the closest beach, 1.8 miles to the nearest county park beach - so that's more like 40 minutes). Hiking, biking, beach - these are all great quality of life things that we have. That's what I value.
Sure I could move to a cheaper place, have a bigger house, better schools, more snow, and less access to fresh local produce year round.