I typed out a response that echos this ^^ and then never posted ?. I think the 15 school idea came about because year after year kids insist that they must apply to Andover, Exeter, Groton, Deerfield as those are the only places they can be academically challenged. And year after year there are a lot of disappointments. If you are applying to a “top ten” list, then yup, you need to apply to 15 schools so that you are applying to 5 reasonable schools.
But if you target very carefully you shouldn’t need to apply to 25, even with a FA need. I think the problem is that most kids (and most parents) really don’t know how to target for BS. They think “my kid is the smartest in the current school so they should go to a top ten.” I realize you are not doing this @metsfan5150 so I don’t think 25 is necessary. Scale down to 15 and do them amazingly well. Are there schools on your list where you would be a truly outstanding applicant for them? Maybe focus on those the most.