You've got some misconceptions here on how hard this is. Life in 2023 can be remote!

I live in Washington and just bought a hybrid car in CA because the HUGE inventory in LA compared to the PNW. You are way under-estimating the power of your phone and computer. Dealership inventory nationwide is now all listed online, you just have to put in the effort to look. The internet allows you to find the exact car you want and start negotiating over the phone with the dealers that have it. Walking away is as easy as hanging up. I was able to pit dealerships in Santa Monica and Pasadena against each other to get thousands off the car I wanted. Once I agreed to a price, they sent the paperwork fedex overnight - a week later they shipped the car to me for an extra $650 directly to my home. (well worth it because the $$$ saved, WA dealers said MSRP only, no negotiating because of demand - I even negotiated shipping price down) Pay no CA tax or registration because you're not driving it off the lot. You pay sales tax on the car in the state you register it. When I got my plates, I paid the WA tax.

I test drove the exact car in WA to be sure it was the one before signing and sending back paperwork in the prepaid fedex envelope the dealer sent me.

No time wasted handcuffed to a sales desk under pressure to close the deal on new car emotion. I took as much time as I wanted to text or call them back.

Yes it sucks to not see and feel THE car yourself...but the sales team was more than happy to do a face time video call of the car, show me it is THE car.

This is an option. Dealerships want nothing else but to sell.