For a lot of students its their parents paying, they'll only realize the value of it all decades later.

This is also true of colleges to return a good return on investment. Also, their financial aid is already comparable (thinking of Standord specifically); I don't think it makes sense to speculate in the direction you're speculating any more than other directions.

Those all have ~roughly equal tuition (except Berkeley, which is far less for in-state students).