There's certainly a cultural divide between industries, but I don't see frugality showing up in the discrepancies. I don't live in the Bay Area, and most people in my sphere of acquaintances who live on the middle-class+ plane aren't getting paid to write software (or trying to) let alone chasing VC money, and none of the people that I interact with most frequently are. (Anecdotally, the software people actually seem more willing to voice positions that align with frugality. Developers are notorious for not wanting to pay for tools, for example.)