For me it has to do more with the unexceptional restaurants that are in the top 50, though the more I read about this list, the sillier I think it is.
LA admittedly does not yet have a EMP equal, but it certainly has a Cosme or a Septime equal.
And to not have anything in even the top 100 is even more galling. If we compare only to the mid-range NYC and Paris restaurants, LA has probably ten to fifteen places equal to or better than the likes of Cosme, Le Chateaubriand, and Estela.