I just looked at another thread which lists some very expensive out of state public schools on the college list such as U Michigan and Berkeley for a full pay family.
These schools would probably be considered good enough for many families but it could be argued that these schools do not seem to have the same bang for buck value that other schools have. They are almost as expensive as privates but without much of the benefits that top privates confer. The same may be true with large privates where the undergraduate student body exceeds 15k, which is pushing up or exceeding the size of some public schools, as the resources may be diluted by the size of the student population. I expect what is good enough in the eyes of some will not be good enough in the eyes of others. For instance, there may be some families willing to fully fund a top private but not a top out of state public where stories abound of students struggling to register for classes, for instance. The same is true for the willingness of some families to pay for some schools more than other schools and this really should not be surprising. Are people willing to pay the same price for any given model of a car? Perhaps that is what is meant regarding the topic - the family is willing to pay fully for a good enough school but that the school needs to provide the right bang for their bucks which can differ from family to family.