To clarify my "biased" point, I meant that if you're not from an R1 university, then a comment/sentiment that sometimes comes up in proposal panel reviews is "if this person is good, then why aren't they at a better university?" It's not supposed to happen but it does. So the bias is against non-R1 universities. So becoming an R1 university means you're less likely to be biased against. If anything, it's the R1 universities that are biased against everyone else.

But I agree that being an R1 university probably doesn't affect undergraduate education that much. So you shouldn't take that into account very much (or at all) when deciding on an undergraduate education. It probably should affect your decision on grad school though if you're doing a research-based degree. But even then department and adviser-level environment are more important than the overall status of the university. But the university status has a trickle-down effect on the department and faculty.