Well, I guess you should go outside of the UK once in a while to get a glimpse of what people in other countries think of top British unis.
You're right -- I'm a Warwick grad myself. But I'm not British, and from where I come from, Warwick is seen very prestigious, surely in the league of those unis you've mentioned.
My Warwick undergrad degree led me to an Ivy school for my grad studies. Based on personal and anecdotal experience, Warwick is surely not seen short like what you tried to imply.
And, for the record, I passed up my LSE admissions (BSc Management) for the same program at Warwick. I'm pretty sure there were several others who did the same in my class alone. Two other American friends of mine chose Warwick over Imperial for maths.
I'm not sure what you're talking about. I don't find King's College prestigious. I agree it is respected. But I don't think it has the brand cache of Warwick brand name, specially in the business community.
As far as I am concern, people in the business world/banking/financial world are much more prestige conscious than people who work in different sectors, for they give more premium to their recruits. And, in the business community world-wide, Warwick is considered a prestigious brand name -- well within the top 20 in Europe. At places like Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, BofA, Blackstone, Citi, and the like, the Warwick name rings a bell. The top bulge bracket fimrs regularly send representatives to Warwick campus with a sole purpose of recruiting Warwick graduates. I don't think the same companies are doing the same thing for King's graduates. The top recruiters around the world haven't possibly even heard of King's, more so regard it as prestigious.
Again, in the business community, Warwick is considered as respected as LSE, and Imperial, and is seen more respected than UCL.
Take the Financial Times' ranking for the best business program in the world. Warwick placed 25 globally, and was even ranked higher than UCLA, Cornell, Virginia, to name a few, considering these are some of the best schools for business in America.
http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-ranking-2014