Seems like the author is mostly referring to a subset of LACs rather than all of them:
“Well-resourced and prestigious small colleges are less exposed in almost every way to the crises that higher ed faces.”
Also, not all small colleges are LACs.
Two thoughts on this. First, it is a resounding endorsement of small liberal arts colleges, particularly well resourced ones. It covers many of the reasons I favor small liberal arts colleges to large research universities for undergraduates. Second, it is consistent with what I recall being reported somewhere, that Research University professors (like professors overall) disproportionately send their own kids to liberal arts colleges for undergrad. The author seemed inclined in that direction as well.
Last summer, I had the pleasure of having a chat with Vassar president Betsy Bradley, who indicated at the time that they had still managed not to be on the radar like the larger schools that were getting targeted for issues like DEI, getting funding scrapped, etc. There are benefits to being a small college
This was certainly my daughter’s experience at Williams. I was impressed by how many of her friends had parents in academia, many of whom were at R1 institutions.
My spouse is a tenured prof at a coveted R1. Many of her colleagues kids attend/attended small liberal arts colleges and ours will be too. What they say about priorities of major R1 profs is accurate. Research is top priority for most, then grad students, then service requirements and undergrads. The incentives are not set up to spend time teaching or mentoring undergrads. There are some R1 faculty who do a magnificent job with undergrads, but at most places that is despite the structure not because of it.
My husband and I are both at R1s, and both our kids are at small LACs. It’s a no brainer for people working in academia who can make the finances work out.
Silly article. Main premise seems to be that those institutions with less have less to lose. Okay.
Didn’t you start at LAC and then transfer? Or is my memory failing me? If so, what did you not like about a liberal arts college?
I don’t know about Publisher, but I started at a LAC and then transferred, mostly because I exhausted the courses available in my areas of interest. I was much happier at a larger research university with a graduate school. But it seems we’ve had the LAC vs research university discussion before, many times… 
The topic of this thread is the article by Ian Bogost which I found to be shallow and uninformative.
I’ll address your question in a brief manner; the smallness, isolated location, lack of diversity, and lack of options regarding courses, professors, & majors as well as seeing the same faces multiple times each and every day were some of the aspects of attending an LAC that I did not like. Missed not having the opportunity to interact with graduate students as well as access to graduate classes. To me, it was more of a suffocating experience than it was a period of growth. I wanted, and needed, more.
What about non-research universities that are not ordinarily considered LACs? Or are they frowned upon because most of them are lower on the prestige scale than the highly selective LACs that get talked about here?
I work at an R1 (and attended one for undergrad and grad) and have a child at a well-resourced LAC, and I could not agree more that LACs are the place to be right now for stability and peace of mind.
Of course, we need both to thrive; without robust R1s, we don’t make the critical scientific research advances that cure diseases and help us avoid climate catastrophe. But purely at the level of student, faculty, and staff experience, I’d take a well-resourced LAC over an R1 for the next 5-10 years. (Meanwhile, my second child wants big-school life and applied only to R1s. So my influence is clearly limited. 
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Give me some examples of what schools you have in mind. I’ll say as a general matter, my experience with professors at high prestige university where my wife teaches is that they tend to also care significantly about prestige. That is likely at least in part because in order to get those gigs, you typically have pretty high prestige education credentials (though not necessarily for undergrad), all of their peers also have high prestige credentials, and they tend to “poo poo” peers who leave for less prestigious universities or laterals who try to come from them. Thus, it is a universe that tends to valorize prestige. To be clear, my primary experience is exclusively with respect to your Alma mater on this, though the same seems to be true of my wife’s peers at other prestige universities. I do not know if it is the same at others. And, this is my experience/perspective which is certainly not universally true.
I definitely agree with you that many people will be happier at a large research university for many reasons whether they be academic like you, or social, or big time sports fan, or otherwise. I more think it is that more of the public, including the relatively well off public, underappreciate what LACs have to offer and also do not fully understand the actual priorities of most large research Universities and where undergrads fall on that. Knowledgeable people could have good reason to pick either as the best option for them.
California State Universities and their equivalents in other states.
But also, what about LACs that are not the usual “well resourced” “highly selective” “prestigious” ones that get talked about here? See List of liberal arts colleges in the United States - Wikipedia . Note that while it seems that people here think that there only about 5 LACs in California that are worth mentioning, there are many more in the list on the linked page.
I have many colleagues at R1 universities who care deeply about teaching. They are top-notch researchers and prominent in their fields, and they have the luxury to also care about teaching because they have low teaching loads – so they can devote themselves to their students because they have fewer classes (and TAs in larger classes).
It is entirely possible, though, to have a thriving career at an R1 as an indifferent teacher. Not so at a LAC. And it is not possible to thrive at an R1 as a dedicated teacher who is not a productive scholar. (Count me and my husband as two more university professors who are happy to send our kids to LACs – where, by the way, professors research and publish plenty.)
For the cal state type, my opinion is the education can be high quality (San Jose state and Sonoma state come to mind setting aside for the moment Sonoma’s money/enrollment issues. And obviously Cal Poly), but aside from Cal Poly, I don’t hear much about them from that cohort except in emergency cases or for their kid who they perceive as struggling and they just hope goes to college somewhere. My perception based on personal experience may be way off though.
I do hear more about liberal arts colleges that are not the usual suspects though (or at least not what I think of as those). They are often not the top choice (with the perhaps rare exception of my D26 right now), but they are on the list more often.
Our (family, relatives,close friends, & classmates from private high school) experience with private National Universities are / were different than those alluded to in this thread. All of the private National Universities were ranked among the top 20 by US News.
Lots of small classes other than the most popular intro courses and reasonably easy access to professors for pertinent matters. Letters of recommendation were eye opening and accurate.
However, most had already experienced intimate academic environments at private day and boarding schools and preferred to experience a large university rather than a small LAC.
Glad to hear it. I think there may be some differences between the private nationals and the public flagships, same for the top 20 in both categories, but I am not an expert in this. I do understand that Yale, Dartmouth (I know this one is a college, but on top 20 theme), Princeton, Brown, undergrad focus is reputed to be top notch. I am not an R1 hater for undergrad, I just like what LACs offer better on average for undergrad. But amazing (and horrific) experiences can happen anywhere.