The juxtaposition of a comment next to code best illustrates the real advantage natural language has. It's pretty good at moving the mind of the reader into the state intended. To convey information concisely. but isn't always right
Your analysis is not symmetric. If you're making a decision on what level of risk you're ok with, that is (by definition) in relation to other people also making similar calculations
They could also hire more engineers or expand into new territory which requires additional (non-engineering) labor. The cost of living in the bay area seems almost an artificial constraint on the supply of labor at these companies