IMO Paying for a top school carries a lot more to it than just the name. Say picking a state school in Arizona vs a school like Columbia (The only Ivy I interviewed at) in NYC. The state school is cheaper no doubt and I am sure it has a great clinical emphasis (I know 0 about MWU-AZ FYI just pulling this out of thin air). Meanwhile Columbia may be double the price, but you do get pass/fail, live in an awesome city (although go to UCLA or similar for a cool city w/ in state tuition). Columbia had the best vibe to it out of the other schools I interviewed at as well, something that other people who attended on average 6-8 interviews agreed on. The non-competitive nature may not be worth the 400k to some, but to ME, being around a "family" going through the same struggle as I am is insanely critical to my success as it has in the past. I can't imagine competing against dozens of other qualified applicants rather than working cooperatively like I have been my whole life.
Columbia also offers grants for people to pursue dual degrees in things such as your masters in public health or your MBA so you pay little to nothing for it. If you end up wanting to specialize last minute, you don't need to kill yourself working for the top 10% because it is P/F and it is "easy" to specialize at an ivy. You can literally decide this on a moment's notice once you decide on general vs specialization vs other fields. How the hell do I know what field of dentistry I like if I have never touched a handpiece or a typodont? I had an hour long chat with my interviewer who was focusing in dental public health, a field I have never looked into yet but is very interesting to me.
Otherwise, no biggie if you don't desire to specialize. It's not for everyone and each school has their benefits, but I think that if you can utilize them WISELY then maybe the 400k debt will be worth it to you in the form of having a great school experience, making lifelong friends and connections with mentors, research opportunities, etc. Again, some of this can be had for a lot of other schools, but there are things I saw personally about Columbia that all other schools lacked.
TL;DR some people want "just" a school for in-state tuition level costs that they can pay off in 5-10 years, while other people don't mind taking out a 15-25 year loan for a dental school "experience". My feeling is that a school like Columbia, Harvard, or Penn offers many different avenues of dentistry to travel, but it is up to you to decide if it is worth the cost of attending a school offering these options to you