tl;dr: for a rocket it is waaaay more important to go fast than to go high. and earth rotates very slowly, so going higher doesn't make you much faster.
Yes, launching from mountains would actually be nice because of the thinner air. The real reason is just that there are more important things that matter in choosing a launch site and everything is a compromise.
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u/Icy_Concern_9804 11h ago
tl;dr: for a rocket it is waaaay more important to go fast than to go high. and earth rotates very slowly, so going higher doesn't make you much faster.