I wonder how much of the lack of prestige that historically white GLOs have at the Ivies is based on the fact that, except Cornell, the schools are older than most fraternities and sororities. That wouldn't quite explain the relative popularity of Greek Life at Dartmouth and Penn, but would explain the fact that at the other five (and even at equally old places like W&M and Rutgers, where Greek life is there but not strong), campus life was built up without them for the most part and they didn't get a strong toehold in campus life. Most of the "big" Greek schools were founded much later than the Ivies, and perhaps more professors and parents were Greek, and encouraged Greek life more.
It could also be that for the most part, the "good" schools are located in either large cities (NYC, DC, Atlanta) where there's a lot of other things to do.
As I've mentioned before, I wrote my senior thesis on the postwar architectural programme at Brown. Part of that programme was to construct a Greek quad, and I devoted a chapter to the things that the college did to control the Greeks (even immediately after WWII, it made Animal House look like an episode of Sesame Street). Greek Life wasn't even that strong then.
I've been pretty busy, but I do want to discuss Greek Life at Brown and Columbia. I promise.
