I don't know how intentional your choice of words was, but describing education as a 'product' is a sad reminder of the current state of the world. It's as if every action and experience in life must be translated into money.
Colleges, let alone Universities, used to be much fewer in number.
It used to be more widely known that the better Colleges, that is mostly the Ivy League and the top Liberal Arts colleges, were the only educational institutions that mattered in terms of imparting the vaguer yet more elite type of education of which you are likely thinking.
That is, the institutions who reliably facilitate the fuzzy process of becoming an educated person who can think like one. In the elite sense of these things.
What we've lost to an extent, in the multi-decade long taxpayer funded college degree bonanza, is that it is these elite institutions which are still seen as the only colleges that matter in the sense that I think that you are implying.
Other colleges are not truly valuable in this sense. So what are they good for? They are good for work training and certification pathways.
Universities have no problem charging obscene rates, which is hard cash, for something that they too would like to be only distastefully associated with money when debating the merits.
If it isn't translatable to money, then make it cheaper. Or keep the value firm and high, but also let's talk about what is being sold.