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I recently decided to do a deep dive on Joan Didion (and Susan Sontag) to see what she was about without knowing much. I grew up in the Bay Area during the time she wrote about it in “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and found it reflected more her sort of depressed and dissociated view of the world than any accuracy about the reality of the era. Her writing did get better and she does deserved high praise, but her early stuff about California for which she is famous for is not that good and probably appealed more to the East Coast culture view of California at the time.
My impression was she wrote more about LA and eastern California than about the Bay Area, but it has been a long time since I opened Slouching Towards Bethlehem or The White Album. I think you're right, though. The later stuff, I can't say--one of these days I should acquire a copy of her and Dunne's The Monster.
I think what people remember is her take on SF's "Summer of Love" which she depicts as a dystopia worthy of a William Gibson novel. Vast dislocations of uprooted people with no meaning in their lives, that sort of thing. It had its downsides, to be sure, but there was also a spirit of fun and experimentation towards a new society. I prefer Tom Wolfe's "Electric Koolaid Acid Test," which I thought captured the spirit better.
Edit: There's a documentary on Netflix I highly recommend. Joan Didion "The Center Will Not Hold"
I had forgotten that essay.