I think that it depends.
The quality of the instructors are generally pretty comparable…sometimes even better at schools that are not R1 institutions, as the professors are often held to a higher standard for teaching than those where research is a bigger focus. (That is not always true…I went to an R1 with some fabulous professors…but schools that focus on Bachelor’s or at most Master’s tend to have a better reputation for teaching quality.)
If both colleges are residential (vs. commuter), then there can often be a lot of similarities.
Sometimes, a particular campus might have better facilities/equipment for a particular field of study than others, and studying at that campus (if undergrads get access to those facilities/equipment) could be a reason. Or the curricular requirements are different (more or fewer distribution requirements, for instance) or the academic schedule is different (J-terms or May term (4-4-1 or 4-1-4) vs. a trimester vs. a quarter vs. a semester vs. a one-at-a-time model) and certain types of schedules work better for a kid than others.
Or a student may qualify for the honors college at one school but not at another, and the perks of belonging to the particular honors college are of significant benefit and interest to the student (not all honors colleges are the same).
Alternatively, a school may have a much better first-year experience program, creating more social and academic and transition supports that can lead to a better college experience and a higher likelihood of thriving.
So these are reasons why a different school could work better than another school, but these could be differences between in-state schools or where an in-state school might be better than out-of-state or the reverse.
I believe that there are a number of schools that could be attractive options and that would make themselves price-competitive with the UC flagship price (UCLA or UCB). So if you want to set that as the top of your budget, you could tell your kid that schools need to meet that budget to be a contender.