Of course not but opportunity is in the eye of the beholder. Ivy is not necessarily the be end and end all. There are kids at NYU Abu Dabi who turned down Harvard (I believe that program is both no cost and prestigious). There is someone posting on another forum who is desperately trying to get USC to match his free offer from Yale. However, most people either seek merit or prestige or a combination of both on a sliding scale (the more prestige, the less merit, exceptions such as Duke, Vandy, Rice and WUSTL exist with a handful of merit rides but it is not what the average Vandy student can expect). For the ones with low EFCs it does not matter, Harvard will pay their way. For the ones with incomes at a certain level it does not matter either, they are happy to write the check for Yale or BC or Miami or whereever they think their child will be happy, for everyone else it depends what you value, can afford and are eligible for in terms of need.
If OPs parents had valued merit money they would have encouraged him to apply where he could get it. Just because he says 500K plus, it could be way more than that or it could be way less than that and this is what he perceives. Many parents lay out the rules pretty clearly. Some want the best school, some want the best school but it has to be at least as good as the state flagship or they will only pay up to the state flagship, some want free rides. Meanwhile the free rides are less plentiful. I know a number of people who applied to Tulane thinking they would get money (not full but something) and were sorely disappointed. OTOH, others were very pleasantly surprised by their financial aid packages.