Reed is something of an outlier, but it has a top-shelf reputation among people who know and care about liberal arts colleges. It refuses to cooperate with USNWR’s ranking system, and it may be test-optional (I’m not sure), but USNWR continues to rank it anyway, far below where its academic reputation would put it. It has always had a strong physics program – look up its physics department. It is known for being very intellectually demanding, and having quirky, individualistic students – not unlike the University of Chicago.
Probably the two most famous Reed alumni – at least the ones I remember – are beat poet Gary Snyder and someone who never graduated, Steve Jobs. Jobs dropped out of Reed for financial reasons but hung around campus going to classes without being registered for a year, and was always very complementary about what he learned there. Reed is also always near the top of the list for percentage of alumni who receive PhDs, along with Swarthmore (which is similar but a little more mainstream).
I would have been happy to send my children there, except for the fact that air travel from where I live to Portland is expensive and really inconvenient. My older child was planning to apply, and I asked her not to for that reason (after she had already been accepted Early Action at a couple acceptable colleges). I know a bunch of alumni and parents of recent graduates, and all are very enthusiastic about the college.
Now, of course, that alone doesn’t make it better than any of the other colleges the OP mentioned. It’s a completely different style of education than any of them provide – something some kids really want, and others not so much.