Yes, I don’t think you will really get any ED “boost” applying to colleges like that, and so it is perfectly fine to just apply REA instead. Or basically, pick your favorite first, then apply early however they do early applications, if you feel like it.
ED would really only make sense for you if there was some US college you really loved but they would not necessarily know that. Like we briefly discussed LACs, and some might normally assume they have little chance to yield a full pay highly qualified International. But suppose you ended up really loving one. Then maybe applying ED there would help in the sense they would not be tempted to waitlist or reject you due to a yield concern.
But if your favorite remains a college like Stanford or such–then the real benefit is just seeing if you can get an early answer, which you can get from REA as well as ED.
Others covered this too, but–you are supposed to figure out if you can pay before you agree to apply ED. For US applicants, this includes using the college’s NPC, and saving the results. Then if you are not sure you can afford what they will charge, or want to compare offers, you are not supposed to apply ED.
Very rarely, there is a legitimate change of circumstances (like a parent loses their job), in which case you can try to negotiate a new offer. Similarly if their NPC ended up inaccurate (through no fault of yours), and you saved the result, you can try to get them to match. In cases like that, if you can’t work something out, they are supposed to release you, you should not have to break your commitment unilaterally.
Part of the problem with Internationals is they seem to often apply without knowing they can pay. To be fair, NPCs can be inaccurate for Internationals, but I have encountered a lot of Internationals who didn’t even look. And again if you are unsure, you are not supposed to apply ED, because you don’t have a right to make a commitment you are not sure you can keep–but it appears many do anyway.
Theoretically an International who then unilaterally breaks their ED commitment could get in trouble with any other US college that admitted them, because that is an ethical violation. They won’t take you to court, because that would be a big pain and bad press. But if another US college agreed you behaved unethically, they could withdraw their offer.
But I gather Internationals in this situation often are not taking a US offer anyway. And since whatever university they are actually attending might not care about any of this, they may see it as low risk to just take a shot at a US college ED without knowing if they can pay.
Which is part of why ED might not “boost” them. Again, if the college thinks you might walk away anyway, despite the commitment you signed, then it doesn’t solve their yield concerns.