Here’s what Middlebury shows for net COA by income level. Unless a family has fairly significant savings, these net prices don’t really look financially accessible for families in the $50K-$225K range (not wanting to debate ‘middle-income’.) As you said, it’s not really the topic that OP asked, but does illustrate the donut hole issue that many families are looking at as they contemplate financing college.
The good news is that net prices for four year colleges in the US have been declining for a more than a decade, so many families do have other options that can be relatively more affordable, they are just outside the small set of elite schools that provide need based aid only.
I agree with tsbna44 that the decision of what to pay for college is unique to each family and their set of circumstances, values, goals, etc. And that’s no different than a college saying they want to increase access for low income families so will focus their financial aid on those families and/or offer only need based aid, defined via a formula that works for that particular college.