You seem to laud general incentives which apply to all companies equally or those which target specific economic activities and then apply equally to all companies engaged in the region in those activities. I submit that both are important. All employment activity occurs somewhere. It doesn't take place in the ether. That applies to Internet-based businesses just as much as it does to traditional ones.
Employees go to work in buildings located in specific communities.
There is a popular idea that's been around for some time which suggests the future will find all of us working from home or wherever we might choose. Where people work might change but they will, for the most part, still go to work in buildings located in communities. Certainly, economies are complex and I do not want to oversimplify things overly much, but I think it is important to recognize that, fundamentally, state, regional and national economies are aggregates of the economies of the communities within their borders. If the economies of those communities are not stable or thriving neither will the economies of the larger political jurisdictions be so. Incentives are very much a part of the competition between states and communities for economic development projects.