I personally know 3 people in the last 3 years who had been rejected or waitlisted from Berkeley with perfect ACT scores, although all were applying for EECS.
Both CC and Reddit admit threads for March show numerous people that got waitlisted or rejected with SAT scores above 1560, especially on the UCLA end.
Level of interest doesn’t necessarily mean “I want to go to such and such a school”. Saying something on your essays that you are a family-oriented person, as an example, might give the vibe that you want to stay close to home.