How are you determining this? Meeting a school’s GPA/testing metrics doesn’t mean you can get in, especially at competitive schools. You need to look at the acceptance rates.
Take MIT as an example. They report that the sum of the midpoints of their SAT scores as 1550. But they also report that the acceptance rates for students with 750-800 in each section as 10-11%. So getting a 1550 doesn’t mean you’ll get in.
Matching the published metrics will mean you are in the range where you will be seriously considered. But a school with a low admission rate still means admission is unlikely (as it is for all), though more likely than those with lower scores. It’s a “match” but still a reach.
I don’t know why you would be discouraged from applying to these schools, but I would certainly encourage you to find other better match/admission rate schools to go along with them.