First part of the analysis is correct. But I care to disagree with the second one starting from here "For all the talk about COVID unlocking the global marketplace of talent, I don't see any evidence of that happening yet." I work exclusively remotely for around 4 years, and I was able to find good remote jobs previously, but after the pandemic started I noticed a large increase of offers and especially noticeable were offers from US companies/startups which were less common before. I'm based in Eastern Europe, but I do spend a lot of time abroad also traveling and I'm happy that a lot of new companies have embraced remote work.