I expect most of us that left did so for one primary reason a J O B!
I love BUF because it's home. I didn't WANT TO LEAVE...BUT, I, and I expect most of us, made the hard choice and did what we thought was best for our own situations.
The people that have left, are joined by Millions of others. You don't believe Millions? Just look at the US House of Representatives member map. 40 years ago, NYS had about 45 Representatives in the US House. Now we're down to 29 and the only reason for that is a massive loss of population, as indicated in the Census. Did NYC lose many? No, but NYS did, big time!
So the population has shifted away from NYS, but there are still a lot of us that Love Buffalo. As people grow older, they may have the opportunity to decide where they want to live, if they are in a position to actually retire. I guarantee you that anyone who's from Buffalo entertains that thought of returning BUT, when you start looking at the living expenses including; property tax, sales tax, gasoline tax, car insurance, etc. etc., reality sets in and Buffalo will lose every time!
I agree that there are a lot of reasons to Love Buffalo, and many more to miss Buffalo. I envy the people who could stay, and make a good living, but many of us were not that fortunate.
When i left, Buffalo had; Bethlehem Steel, Republic Steel, Standard Oil, National Gypsum, Harrison Radiator, 2 Newspapers, a merchant filled Downtown, a working Waterfront with many Lake Freighters, Railroad tracks most everywhere, a much larger Ford & GM presence. All that changed due to taxes and regulation, which are still mostly in place.
So, I love it, I miss it, but like most of us, you can't live in the past, and the future has pretty much departed.