Sure. And there are tens of thousands of strong students that come from high schools that are overall weak, and therefore don’t appear on the radar of many colleges, because they have no idea how to determine if a particular kid is strong or not. High test scores allow students from there to shine as I explained in my earlier example. I was one such kid and my test scores were critical to me getting merit scholarships that allowed me to afford college.
In contrast, both my kids are going to elite colleges. Yes, they both have excellent test scores. But even if you removed those, they would still shine because of their activities, some of which would be unaffordable to low income families.
After adjusting for SES, test scores help the strong students from poorer schools much more than they help strong students from wealthier schools.