The corporate jobs aren’t much better. The pay is great for tech workers, but no amount of money makes the 10% yearly cull, the added layoffs, and micromanagement easier.
To your last point, though, you’d be surprised at how hard it can be as a very experienced candidate from outside the US to land a role in the US. I have had multiple HM’s that have wanted to hire me for my experience in their market, but they have been forced to take domestic candidates or to run weeks of interviews with external candidates to rule out that a foreigner should get a tech role.