Since you mentioned University of Washington, they did recently implement an FYE-type of program in order to move the primary admission gate (for its undersized-relative-to-demand engineering departments) back toward the frosh admission stage. Previously, admission to an engineering major was a free-for-all application process where any enrolled student can apply after completing prerequisites, resulting in large percentages of engineering hopefuls being denied entry to any engineering major they want, often despite GPAs higher than 3.0. Apparently, they realized that this high level of competition and disappointment among frosh/soph students trying to get into engineering was not very nice, so now frosh applicants apply “Direct to College [of Engineering]” so that the number of applicants to engineering majors later is more closely matched with departmental capacities.
It does mean that more frosh engineering applicants will be turned away at the frosh admission stage, but it is likely better for them to have to choose a different school then than have to transfer away after being shut out of their majors in their second year of college.