It's regional thing too. Depending on the location, the startup's values places emphasis on different things. An NYC startup probably has more emphasis on 'smoke and mirrors', and has more of a market to capitalize your design skills for.
I don't agree with the assessment that NYC startups are more "smoke and mirrors". I will concede that there seems to be more of an engineering culture in SV and more of a design culture in NYC but if you look at NYC it's to be expected.
