BTW, I really don’t have a dog in this fight.
I just thought I’d add to the discussion the personal experience of an elite LAC grad in mathematics who went on to an elite graduate program. She offers valuable insights.
I might also add, that I have a nephew who turned down huge FA package offers at top LACs to study physics at the College of Creative Studies, which is part of UC Santa Barbara. He was advised he’d get much quicker access to advanced classes at CCS than at any LAC. The advice was right: he was doing graduate-level work starting in his freshman year.