Frontier is not just a place which is cold and desperate. Frontier is an opposite of that - a place which is undeveloped yet it is at the beginning of strong growth curve.
A place where it is dangerous and you will have to break your back, but the payout is nice and allows you to climb societal ladder fast.
Vorkuta is an opposite of frontier despite being the reference cold area.
That sounds like a no true Scotsman's frontier to me. There's nothing about "beginning of a strong growth curve" in historical or colloquial definition of frontier, nor did most people coming there settle there for that reason. Most frontiers do not guarantee a nice payout even if you break your back. It's just that the ones that do are the ones we write books and make movies about.
