Goes without saying that wherever you are, how much you gain from your presence over there depends entirely on you, also, unless you have had exposure to more than one kind of work-environment, difficult to judge or give a comparative analysis but my two cents on this would be that research institutions are great places to be at and your work is just one aspect of it. The fact that you get to hear from some of the best researchers makes it all the more fascinating. At least that is what I believe :)
