FWIW, I think the UK university admissions system is a lot more sane than the US one - in particular, admission is overwhelmingly decided on academic merit - and (from talking to many colleagues in both systems) I don't think it's true that students have less access to staff or otherwise have a worse time, at least at good ("Russell group" mostly in the UK) universities. The overseas fees US students would pay typically still look like good value compared with US fees, too. Happy to go into detail if anyone wants.

Email: my username, followed by 2, at google's mail