It’s difficult to generalize across all colleges and all situations, particularly with holistic admissions decisions. I was a half-time student at a nearby SUNY while an upperclassmen at HS. I believe this was a key factor for being admitted to Stanford, MIT, and Ivies with HS stats well below normal for admits (bottom few % of matriculating class by both HS GPA and CR SAT). Getting straight A’s in the many DE courses showed I was capable of succeeding at university courses, showed motivation to pursue a higher level courses than offered at my HS, showed HS teachers/GC encouraged unique path beyond what was available at the HS, and led to LORs from university professors that I expect were more highly regarded than typical. I don’t think more typical HS AP courses would offer the same benefit. Stanford gave me credit for the DE courses – both credit towards degree, and allowing me start at more advanced courses beyond other freshmen.
However, taking DE classes at an unknown community college or within HS may be treated differently. Cornell was mentioned in earlier posts. The website for one of the Cornell schools mentions this distinction saying Cornell may give credit for a “course taken on a college/university campus with matriculated degree students and taught by a college/university professor”, but will not give credit for “courses sponsored by colleges or universities but taught in the high school to high school students.”