The rankings lag reality by quite a lot. I think MIT probably was the #1 university in the world a couple of decades ago, but wasn't ranked ultra-high then. It is ranked ultra-high today.
I'm talking more about brand/'hype' in particular. 15 years ago when I was starting my PhD, everyone adored MIT and wanted to be them.
Now I'm faculty at a reasonably good university in Europe, and obviously MIT is a fantastic place and I'd probably give a finger to get a tenured job there. But I think Harvard/Oxford/Princeton/Stanford have slightly eclipsed MIT in pure brand power. Stanford especially gets more of a 'wow!' reaction these days.
MIT's hay day in terms of research was decades ago -- before I got there -- sixties and eighties. The book Hackers by Levy is a good read on MIT Classic. It took a while for the work from there to be recognized outside in other institutions; you can give a 10-20 year window there. In the general public, virtually no one had heard of MIT.
By the late nineties, MIT research was just past its peak. Peer reputation peaked then or a little bit later. The general public was just starting to notice it existed.
In the 2010's, MIT research quality and integrity was in freefall. General public noticed MIT was #1, perhaps a half-century after-the-fact. Peer reputation was just past the peak.
I expect it will take another 10-30 years before the general public notices MIT has declined.
Stanford gets a "Wow" reaction for entrepreneurship more so than research.
I definitely wouldn't give a finger to be at MIT or Stanford. Of the ones you'd mentioned, Princeton, I think I'd be pretty happy at. If I had my druthers, though, I'd pick a school which is on the rise, basically where MIT was in the sixties or eighties. Mostly, I want a place which has a lot of freedom, integrity, and an open, accepting culture. Georgia Tech seems like a decent place right now. Yale would be nice. ASU would be a uniquely good fit. There are a few state schools I like too.
Schools in Europe are a mixed bag. I've considered going to a less-well-known school in one of the poorer countries in Europe, where there are smart people, and where I could buy a home for cash, and have the perfect freedom of being independently wealthy. If you're at MIT or Stanford, you need to do consulting, startups, or similar to have a decent standard of living, and that brings a pile of conflicts-of-interest. Entry level mortgage requires $200k+ in income in either of those housing markets, which is more than junior faculty are paid. Tenured faculty -- including consulting and outside interests -- make a mint.
It's not that I disagree with you exactly, but I think you're overgeneralising from tech. In my discipline (in the humanities) MIT is still top-notch, though has never quite been on a par with Princeton. Research integrity isn't really an issue, and there's no outside or consulting income to be had, so it's all salary. Housing is complex because rich universities often own property that they let you live in for free.
The humanities? Like education? Where MIT acquired a bunch of IP through fraud, lies, and sometimes intimidation, bundled it up into edX, and sold it for $800M, with money lining the pockets of well-positioned faculty members?
Or Stanford? With their school of ed? Baking data to support politically-popular causes, and gaining "impact" when fraudulent research is adopted by virtue of reinforcing what teachers want to hear, with the only victims being the students?
Yeah. Please. Do some research and come back another time.
If you want high-integrity ed research, you can look towards ASU, WPI, or many other schools one tier down in brand, and two tiers up in integrity.
No, not education. You guessed wrong about which discipline, and then went on a crazy rant... not a good look for you.
There is one of the humanities disciplines that MIT has been excellent in for several decades... if you don't know which one it is, then you don't know as much as you think you do.
(As I said, 'integrity' isn't really an issue in my discipline. Outside possible plagiarism, I guess. Another way in which your rant was a bit silly.)
Also, ASU and WPI one tier down in brand from MIT? Dream on, try three or four tiers.
There's a #1:
https://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings