Again, opinions & bias - as one who did study abroad, I’d place the ease/financial incentives/supported programs of that route as the intangible, if a student is really key on great location in college. Again, it’s attending school, and when you consider all the breaks spent going home frosh/soph year, not a very long term commitment to any location.
And indeed, as with Austin, many neat “small cities” or “large towns” sprinkled across the US that are fun to land in graduating from anywhere. Road trip, USA.