You just classified a statement that includes "probably" as absolutist. Perhaps you should reexamine it and consider whether your own context is causing you to interpret it slightly differently than intended.
And yet I don't think it's clearly inflammatory. Again, perhaps what you are interpreting as clearly inflammatory was meant to express something other than that.
Of course, this could all be cleared up if you actually explained what you thought was so horrible about the original comment. So far you've called it "absolutist" and "clearly inflammatory" but not actually explained why you think so. Obviously, at least one person disagrees, so perhaps backing up your statements with your reasoning would help.
I'm cool with it being considered inflammatory to oversensitive Californians. Their reaction is exactly why people in the other 49 states don't like California. You can't remotely criticize CA at all, it's a wonderful magical land where everything and every person is better than everywhere else. They'll take offense even when they don't meet the profile that the criticism was intended for, just because it might offend someone else in CA.
Yes, I believe that statement. There are two things that being located in SV gets you:
1. Ability to hire elite programmers that are a few percent better than those in NYC. You'll pay for that quality though. Plus the cannon fodder programmers that you'll hire if you get big cost more in SV for the same quality as NYC.
2. VC money that is a bit easier to get for tech startups compared to NYC.
Your business is not robust if it would be successful if you hired a 99th percentile programmer and had $5mm in investment in SV, but it would fail with a 95th percentile programmer and had $3mm in investment in NYC. People that don't think they could make their idea work in NYC aren't confident in their idea and just playing entrepreneur.
Do you actually genuinely believe these absolutist statements, or you make them just coz they make for good sound bites?