As a person who's lived in both, this definitely makes literally no sense. The startup ecosystem in NYC is leagues above Dubai (which is honestly 90% joke, useless startups). NYC is by any reasonable metric (funding, unicorns, exits, etc.) in the top 5 startup ecosystem worldwide.
Agreed. The NYC JS scene is huge, entertaining, and very nicely knit. I've visited offices and been to meetups all around Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens (and even Jersey). We have our own conferences (EmpireJS and EmpireNode). There are great companies here in a variety of spaces. I believe that NYC, as a city, is extremely conducive to the "startup life".
Berlin - 2? Beijing - 26?
I'd like to be constructive but it appears to just be randomized.