Call me crazy, but I think the decision has already been made based on your descriptions! It seems like your only drawbacks for Berkeley are grade deflation and other people’s horror stories. In regards to the latter, take them with a grain of salt. Of course it is always interesting and helpful to hear others’ experiences at a school, but you never know what other external factors might have affected their experience and whether or not that will affect you. In regards to grade deflation, I’ve been told numerous times that graduate programs are well aware of schools that have a history of deflating the grades of their students and take this into consideration when evaluating their applicants. I don’t think this will be a huge problem. Granted, I am a complete stranger on the internet, but it looks to me like you’ve got your heart set on Berkeley, and you’ll probably be wondering “what if I’d gone there instead?” if you go to UCLA. Listen to your gut!