?? Socal is pretty ugly. It has gross rolling hills that remind me of S. Idaho, suburban sprawl, and the beaches are all crowded. San Diego is nice, but pretty much anything between San Diego and SF Bay area is pretty ugly imo, and that's where most of the population lives.
Northern California is pretty though, as are the national parks. But imo, pretty much everything California has, somewhere else does it better:
forests - PNW; Olympic rainforest, and anywhere on the west side of the cascades beats anything Cali has
mountains - cascades and the Rockies are much prettier imo
beaches - surfing is good in Cali, but for pretty much everything else, I prefer the gulf for warmer, calmer water
I really don't like visiting Cali. My in-laws live in LA and my cousin's live in SF, and both are unpleasant to visit imo. If I had to live anywhere, I'd probably pick San Diego or northern Cali (well north of SF.
I currently live in Utah, which I much prefer. It has:
pretty mountains
gorgeous state and national parks
fishing
mountain bike and hiking trails near my house
enough population to have everything I need
If I moved, I'd probably go east (N. Caroline seems nice) or back to the Northwest (grew up near Seattle, so I'd probably go east of the mountains for more sun). Never to California.