" … The district’s valedictorian roll has been rising for years. In 2014, I graduated as one of 72 valedictorians from Dublin Jerome High School." …
Generally I don’t agree with his basic points, but, ironically, neither does he. At the end of his essay, he explains how an open competition for speaking priviledges at graduation led to his being selected, and ultimately to an opportunity coming out of that. So he’s not as ambivalent towards competitions and evaluations as he seems at first. 
As a side note, my opinion and assessment of one high school athlete I knew was elevated dramatically after I heard him speak at the team banquet. He was a great deal more poised and thoughtful than I would have imagined before.
The title “valedictorian” has no meaning to colleges, none, zilch. The only thing that has meaning is a kid’s standing in HS class. Many top HSs realized it a long time ago and stopped labeling the top kids, even stopped ranking them and stopped assigning weighted GPAs as all of it is a waste of time. Colleges strip down the weighted GPAs and re-calculate them and they determine an applicant rank in his HS class by using applicant GPA and HS class profile that all HSs are obligated to provide.
So, HS may as well name “valedictorian” everybody in graduating class, it does not matter, nobody will care.
No one is special when everyone has to be special.