I went to Stanford for Computer Science, and from my friends who went to Ohio State, equivalent courses sound significantly harder there to me - not much grade inflation, larger amounts of work. It’s anecdotal but I think the primary difference is the power of the network you interact with - which feeds a virtuous cycle of ambition and drive, given how empowering having that network is. Not the difficulty or rigor of coursework, except in marginal ways (for instance, d.school was nascent in popularity when I was at Stanford, so I suppose I got a sneak peek into design thinking before it got more popular elsewhere) but that’s not a dependable advantage of elite schools IMO and I probably would have run into the concepts in industry either way.

At MIT you can get a degree relatively easily if you make that your goal, but most people don't. I have respect for MIT grads because more often than not that means you have intelligence and work ethic. I've seen very smart people fail to graduate because their work ethic wasn't good enough (I don't think I ever met anyone there that wasn't smart) so having a diploma definitely means more than just attending.

The only élite university in the US with a significant drop out rate is Cal Tech. I’m sure there are lots of people who went to MIT who graduate with a softer degree than they expected to get going in but drop out rates at the tip top are low. At top graduate schools they birder on non-existent. Most years no one drops out of Yale Law School.