I agree with this 100%. I went to a state school (michigan state) on an academic scholarship instead of going to rensselaer or MIT, where i'd been accepted but with a lot more loans in my financial aid package.
It's conceivable that I'd have had a better job right out of college, especially given the network effects of the big-name schools, but I got an excellent education. Of course, my job prospects were helped by grad school (UC Berkeley), but by that time I knew very well what I wanted to Be When I Grew Up, so the investment was worth it (and ended up being very small, as I managed to live cheaply (it was the early 2000s) and swing a grad assistantship most of the time. On top of all that, the stuff I'm doing means I have to keep learning all the time, so the actual stuff I learned as an undergrad and in grad school was far less important than the habits of mind I acquired there that made me a good learner.
Bargain hunting for an education is really important. I've met lots and lots of people since graduating, some were amazing at their jobs and could get work anywhere and some were ... not. That didn't seem to correlate much with alma mater.
So yeah: a college degree can be great, but you don't need to go to a small elite private school to hone your analytical, technical, communication, and creative skills. It's way more about making use of what's available.