You are right - ED is not for you.
If you want to compare offers, you need to apply EA or RD where EA is not offered. Also, if aid matters, then you don’t have a true first choice - so ED would be out anyway.
Also, you can “pre-determine” at many schools who offers aid and how much. Many tell you up front - such as Hofstra and Bradley on private and Arizona, Arizona State, MS State and more on public. Others provide no merit aid at all.
There’s also a school of thought - some say it’s not true and some say it is - probably depends on the school - but if you apply ED and they accept you, why take care of you financially? They already have you.
My daughter was a merit hunter - and she’s on free tuition at an OOS school - assuming she keeps a certain GPA.
Good luck.