No, so I can’t speak from experience for the rest of NYC.
However, I suspect expensive and sophisticated pockets all across NYC will also insist on the same Good Guy guarantee. It’s just too easy to register an LLC/C-corp, and if too many people use that hack to walk away from serious commitments, that will freeze the commercial lease market.
I think the point was "why would you HQ your startup in one of the most expensive/sophisticated markets in the country in the first place?". There are some business plans where that might make sense, but for the majority the risk of incurring this level of liability shouldn't be worth it.
Yes, we all should choose the location based on what we are trying to optimize for. I run an enterprise SaaS, and I project that over the next ten years, being based in the global corporate hub will create optionality that's worth more than the increase in my running costs. So I moved internationally to live & build in NYC.
Once I crystalized what I wanted to optimize for (the "why" and the "what"), many other big decisions downgraded into low-uncertainty execution issues of "how".
However, this calculation is personal and will differ for every startup/founder. I'd even say that unless you are sure that NYC/Manhattan is the right place for you right now, it almost certainly isn't. Living & building here requires conviction and must be re-evaluated every few years.
However, I suspect expensive and sophisticated pockets all across NYC will also insist on the same Good Guy guarantee. It’s just too easy to register an LLC/C-corp, and if too many people use that hack to walk away from serious commitments, that will freeze the commercial lease market.