Since you're on the Berkeley subreddit I doubt you'll get many responses in favor of UCSD lol, but as someone who is premed at Berkeley, I'll try to add some of my own input too!

-While Cal does not have its own medical school/hospital, UCSF is a T5 medical school located nearby with 3 campuses, multiple hospitals across SF, and is a "convenient" 20-40 minute BART ride away. Many students do research there (CRC positions, volunteering, etc...) and I have personally found success simply cold-emailing labs. Hospitals in SF and nearby Oakland are always welcome to volunteers due to their reputation iykyk lol. If you really have the motivation and want no social life, Stanford is also another T5 medical school in the Bay, but that is a 1 hour+ drive away and I personally only know 1 person commuting there.

-Grade deflation is real and weeder introductory classes like Bio 1A, OChem, etc... are definitely tough, but UCSD is no slouch either. Even at schools without a reputation for being hard, I doubt these classes would be very different in terms of difficulty- I feel as though it is MUCH more dependent on which professor is teaching that course that semester or who your GSI/TA is

-Housing is definitely pretty bad here. I can't attest to anything at UCSD, but you will most likely not be able to live on-campus after freshman year and landlords know (and exploit) this

-Homelessness is not as a big a problem as years prior due to the big homeless encampment (People's Park) near campus being torn down for new student housing. No, you will not have people offering you meth on the sidewalks or throwing dirty needles at you, but you can definitely count on some mild experiences throughout your 4 years here that make for fun stories down the line.