Even in California the median is around 120k. Well done for earning 500k but that is not a typical software engineer salary. Even at Google its under 300k, and FAANG-type companies are, by definition, outliers.
I don't need to worry about my family in Europe. No matter what health problems they have, they will be taken care of in a good public hospital and it won't cost them a thing.
When my kids are old enough to go to university, they won't have to take out a loan to pay for courses.
If they drop out of college, they'll still be able to get a decent job that pays a living wage.
They'll have access to affordable child care for their children, and they won't need a 200.000€ job just so they can afford living close to their job.
I don't have to be afraid of getting mugged or shot on the street if I go to the wrong part of town because we have much lower crime rates because our social security system helps people who run into hardship instead of punishing them.
My wife and I both work in tech, outside of SF. We make around a 200k premium each to not work in Europe.
You can look at ‘any number of other metrics’, but one of them isn’t going to be culture. European culture is dead and ossified.