I’ve know a lot of kids who grew up in a flagship town and they still had the full college experience going to that flagship. My friend lives in Madison and her son went to UW-Madison (and her daughter for grad school). They saw him for football games and on Sundays he came home to do laundry and watch the Packers with his dad. Brought his cousin too. Quite a few friends from Boulder went to CU. Lived in the dorms or sorority house if they wanted to.
It’s not like the parents can just show up and find the kid among 30,000 kids. My daughter who attended a school 2+ hours away came home much more often than I ever did and I lived about 45 minutes away.
If VT is the best school for him, don’t let distance (or closeness) become an issue because it really isn’t.