Stanford may now have more students on scholarship than off. But I know many of the Ivies have 40%+ of their students receiving no scholarship money, and it takes a family income of 150k+ (often more like 200k+) to not receive scholarship or loans. That means more than 40% of these schools' students come from families earning in the top 5% of household income (the 95th percentile is ~$190k). That is to say, the schools that offer the best aid, that have the potential to be the most affordable, aren't typically serving those who could most take advantage of the lower prices. Instead, private universities that do not guarantee to meet a student's need, state schools and for-profits tend to serve those students. Those are the schools where the sticker price is more likely to be the real price.

Its easy when you have a $17 billion endowment.

Where is the citation for the amount students pay hasn't gone up? College tuition was already past the "this math doesn't make sense" mark when I was in school a decade ago. One of my room mates couldn't borrow anymore money and had to drop out half way through. $90 textbooks back then are $150 now. And so on.