For what its worth i too did a private practice internship and then matched to an academic residency.
You are definitely still cheap labor at an academic practice, and althouh they care about your future, that alone may not be enouh to match you to a residency (i was shocked how many interns from my 4th year did not match to residencies). And althouh salariea are low across the board, its not necessarily true that you will make the same salary as someone in a low vs. high cost of living area. Using the example above, Iowa offered $26k this year, AMC offered nearly $28k but has housing accomodations, and BluePearl NYC aoffered $37k. And although its clearly not all about the money, you should defi itely ask interns at the places you apply if they are able to live and pay all necessary expenses based on their salary, or if they have external support (spouse, family) or extra loans to survive. At moat places i think you can scrape by, but there are a few places i looked at that i just couldnt conceive living in whatever big city on however little salary amount.