I’m not coming to this in a judgmental manner…for a majority of students budget is their number one factor/limiter in choosing a college. Many full pay families have a choice to pay less (e.g., attend in-state publics, merit hunt, etc.) I do agree that it’s hard to figure out which schools might give a lot of merit, which is why we see merit hunters applying to a higher than average number of schools.
It does lower tuition bills for some. The average net cost of college has declined over the last decade, because the average discount rate is in the mid 50% range now.