Ranking in local without physical address

I have always been under the impression that if you have a physical address in your GMB listing then you are more likely to rank for local search but ive seen some websites that are service area based businesses with no physical address ranking for local service area based businesses in states such as california so very competitive keywords in very competitive states

Doesn't it matter if you don't have a physical address and just operate as a service area based business?

How do you build citations as a service area based business if you have no physical address?