For what it is worth I agree with you. It seems to me every college is finding a way to ration out a limited International aid budget (if they have one at all). A few colleges are managing to do that by being so hard for even extremely well-qualified Internationals to get admitted that they don’t need to do anything more to stay on budget. Many more instead are a bit easier for highly qualified full pay Internationals than highly qualified high need Internationals, but I am not sure that actually makes them harder than the first group for high need Internationals! It is more that they get a little less hard (sometimes very little less) for full pay Internationals.
Then eventually you get to the point that highly qualified full pay Internationals are actually pretty likely to get admitted. And yet equally qualified but high need Internationals may still find it much harder. But again, not necessarily any worse than for high need Internationals at any of the above, it is more that they are simply not benefiting as much from the improving odds for full pay Internationals.
Assuming all that is right, the first time something really significantly “new” happens for highly qualified high need Internationals is when you get to the colleges that actually see them as an opportunity to get some highly qualified students they could not otherwise get. And then they start not just admitting the ones they want, but maybe even offering them merit money.
None of this is meant to discourage highly qualified high need Internationals from taking some shots at what would be reach/target schools for US applicants, where if admitted they could get enough need aid to be on budget.
But I tend to agree whether those colleges are nominally need blind or need aware for Internationals may make less difference in their actual chances than hoped.