You don't have to retire in the Valley. Why would you want to retire in the Valley? Everything there optimizes for bilking outrageous sums of money from overworked young people who are getting paid said outrageous sums of money.
Actually, I could think of dozens of places I'd rather retire in, over the Valley.
I thought the usual track was Move to SV -> Get rich -> Retire somewhere cheaper. ~1 million is plenty almost anywhere on the planet. Especially if they go the FIRE route.
$1M isn't plenty for everywhere. Even in India, $400-500k is what you would need to buy a new 3-4 bedroom apart in a good area of, say, New Delhi. In Mumbai, $1M is the bare minimum
