"There's an unwritten agreement that if you want commercial training at Booker, you go to WAC. If you want to do a PPL, go to BAFC. "
That would surprise me very much, and I suspect that the owners and management of WAC would not thank you for suggesting it! Certainly WAC also has a healthy crop of PPL students.
With regards to your last question, Ipswich:
Weather: Wycombe does have its own weather traits. Situated 500 ft up on the top of the Chilterns, it can have weather which precludes flying when White Waltham down the road is busy. In particular, a moist NE airflow often results in cloud forming on the Chilterns as the air rises off the Aylesbury plain, and the cloudbase can stay at 300ft or less all day. Conversely, when the Aylesbury plain is fogged out, Wycombe can be in glorious sunshine, and the trip to the edge of the Chilterns to look down on the fog is beautiful. (Not a great idea to fly over it single engined, however..!). A good rule of thumb is to look at the TAF and METAR for Luton (EGGW), which is also 500ft up on top of a hill. What they have is either about to arrive at WAP or has just come from there!
Flying Area: I don't think you could want for a better place. There is controlled airspace nearby to practice avoiding and crossing, MATZ and Class D control zones within 10-15 minutes flying time, and a very varied navigation area ranging from the Aylesbury plain to the hills and valleys of Wiltshire. The circuit can get very busy, and requires precise navigation skills to avoid being fingered by the noise protestors who live around it. In addition, you need to learn at a very early stage the technique for spotting other aircraft as it is a very popular area, compounded by the traffic routing around the edge of the Heathrow Zone.
Common places for X-Country landings are: Leicester, Nottingham, Cambridge, Gloucester, Cranfield (expensive and more usual for the advanced training than PPL) .
Hope this helps. Why not pop along to WAC or BAFC and go for a trial lesson to see what you think?