As another example on missing data points: my S23 attended a very small Waldorf high school, which offered honors options for classes but not AP classes. He had a high GPA but how could colleges contextualize a small, unusual school like that?
Testing. In his case I firmly believe his 790RW/750M of course isn’t the reason he got in anywhere, yet it confirmed for the AOs that his high grades and (what I’m certain were heartfelt and excellent) recommendation letters were an accurate reflection of his abilities.
As I told my kid: the SAT is a dumb test, but it was a dumb test that validated that your grades and teacher letters were real.