OP Honestly you could easily ask the question in reverse
Cals hard earned international acclaim, Nobel laureates and advance stem research is most definately not a result of undergraduate studies. And the PhDs didn’t go to cal. They actually refuse to take Berkeley undergrads into advanced stem studies at cal. as part of their admittance policy.
I would have to have an economic incentive to choose cal over usc for undergrad.
And I appreciate someones positive experience as the best years of their life. That presupposes that the same individual might not have had an equally or better experience somewhere else. One will never know.