Agree. My point was that a full pay parent should understand which of these three price buckets any potentially interesting colleges fall into before deciding whether or not to apply.
We decided to eliminate bucket 1. S applied only to bucket 2 plus UCs, ended up at UCLA since none of his 10 or so bucket 2 offers were worth the extra cost. D applied to (audition-based programs in) buckets 2 and 3 plus UCs, ended up with full ride in bucket 3.