I grew up in MA but have lived in RI for 10+ years now. My experience is that really, they are pretty much the same thing. MA is generally more expensive (tax and real estate wise) but there is always exceptions. Schools in MA are generally better but again; there's plenty of exceptions.

Depending on where you are the "regions" throughout MA all feel different and have much different access to amenities; Boston proper, Boston suburb sprawl, Northshore MA, Southcoast MA, Southeast MA, Central MA, Western MA so depending on "where" exactly you're looking - it can vary pretty wildly.

RI has that same regionality differences as MA BUT being such a tiny state those regional differences become super compressed. So the difference in culture, household income, school system, local amenities that you might have between Northshore MA and say Southeast MA (separated by like a 2.5-3 hour drive) exist in RI but are pretty much separated by a 45 min - 1 hour drive.

Really it just depends on the price point you have, the type of town you want to live in, and the distance to travel to work in Providence you are comfortable with. If you want to be, for example, within an hour drive to Providence - that covers nearly the entire state of RI so your living options run the entire spectrum whereas that will really only hit the southcoast/southeast MA regions and encroach on the southern boston suburbs towns.