Its not people being nice, its the atmosphere thats the difference, at MQ its absolutely laid back, we're a pretty small uni so people can easily meet others if they wanted to, and its got this rural town feel to it that the city unis don't really have.
You've also highlighted the exact same things that make MQ pretty awesome, its small and most of your classes aren't half an hours walk away, and there are plenty of deceptively looking buildings which look shit on the outside because of their 'heritage' status and are pretty well done on the inside.
To the opening post: UNSW has the roundhouse, so what, anyone can go to that, its not some sort of private uni thing, just means you gotta travel, same with manning bar, and up until recently it happened at MQ as well, I hear that there are bids to try and bring back live music but we used to have some big bands come play at our bar/atrium/conception day so I don't think that its that big a deal.
The one thing I hate about MQ is transport. Its in the middle of fucking nowhere.