My sense of it after reading about this kid and what his goals are, yes he made a very prudent choice. Especially if he is very sure about where he wants to end up.
Now the decision to apply to all eight ivies in the first place, that is hard for me to understand. Perhaps he and his parents went into the process less sure about who he is and what he wanted out of life, but that became more defined as he went through the process. We are talking about a 17 year old here.
But yeah if my kids ultimate goal is to practice medicine in the state of Tennessee (or Alabama, Kentucky, etc.), absolutely this makes a lot of sense. To spend six figures more and wind up in exactly the same place, for a family that doesn’t have their retirement squared away yet, more kids to put through college, med school to pay for, etc. it becomes very hard to justify. Very much a luxury item.