People have been saying this for a very long time. I did a startup in Pittsburgh back in ~2009, and this was exactly what everyone was saying. My cofounder is still doing startups in the same space(ish), but in the Bay Area now.
That doesn't mean it won't ever come to pass, but I am still skeptical. (And I live in Austin now... but the startup I work for is still fundamentally based in the Bay.)
This is a strong argument: people have been talking about the distribution of work with every new invention (phone call, fax, email, and now video conferencing). And they don't just mean moving from San Fran to Austin (where people speak the same language, and you can hire citizens, and the currency is the same and you drive on the same side of the street), but to India and China.
And yet, and yet, and yet the same centers of industry persist. Movies in LA, Oil in Houston, Finance in NYC and tech in San Fran.
I am sure the arguments for the persistence are well rehearsed and can be looked up but I just want to underscore one feature: winner take all.
Whichever argument you find compelling as to why these industries congregate, (networking is easier, money is easier to get, you have everything you need in one place, ambitious people go there and so on) it has to be such that the #1 place has an enormous advantage over the #2 place. If your argument does not have that structure, it doesn't really explain why everyone congregates.
And if your argument does have that property (some winner-take-all mechanism), then after covid and zoom force a redistribution, so long as that small advantage maintains, the dominant city will re-assert itself.
Things have been changing. Hollywood makes fewer movies than ever before and most of the work has moved elsewhere. Tv shows for networks are still made there but with so many additional channels more shows are being made elsewhere.
Pittsburgh,Detriot were never in a position to overtake the valley. California offers too much and the valley is not moving to another citt. But less companies feel the need to be in the valley because the internet provides a virtual space.
Oil is being replaced with renewable power so that shift won't affect who the oil capital is but it will reduce it's imporance.
Finance and New York fit culturally well together like California dreams and high tech startups.
That doesn't mean it won't ever come to pass, but I am still skeptical. (And I live in Austin now... but the startup I work for is still fundamentally based in the Bay.)