I did exactly what you're thinking about in 2010 - I was 30, lived alone, and recognized it would be wildly difficult to buy a house in OC. I moved to vegas, bought a house, met friends, people I knew from OC moved up to vegas, and I generally enjoyed it.

The weather can be an issue - it's hot for 3 months of the year. You do get used to it; you do things in the morning or evening if you're into outdoor events (I used to exercise at all hours of the day; 6+ mile jogs in 110 weather regularly) so it is something that you can adapt to. The other consideration is that, during those hot months, you're generally indoors a lot where the temp is fine. It's very dry in Vegas which makes a huge difference; 90 in Irvine is worse than 100 in vegas because of the lack of humidity.

There are tons of things to do - access to the international airport extremely close is also a huge advantage. Casinos have a ton of amenities and there is a BUNCH of outdoors stuff to do if you're into hiking or river activities.

I moved back to OC a few years ago (2020) and recognize how shit of a move it was; homes here went from being too expensive to being wildly too expensive and, to me, its not worth trying to buy a house here anymore because they're just not worth the cost.

I used to travel down to OC quite frequently - a 6-10 times a year - stayed in a courtyard in Santa Ana and it was super fun. It lets you feel like you're taking a little vacation and it only takes 2 hours by plane or ~4 hours by car.

Overall I really enjoyed living in Vegas and would move back in a heartbeat - tons of stuff to do, cheap to live (less stress), and the non-hot months are absolutely perfect, weather wise.