No way they send an app to an interviewer. Even in-house, they have multiple layers of password protection. That stuff’s not going out in a Fedex box or attached to an email. The difference may be for some schools where you’re interviewed on-prem and wth. But we’re not talking about those and the whole point is a fresh look at what the written app struggles to convey.
I’ve lost track of why there’s a SAT argument going on. Regardless of how things were ten or 20 years ago or longer, times have changed, there’s immense competition from a pool of kids and non-quantitative matters.
What I’ll say about scores is that the motivation to do well is good. For all CC talks about passion, being yourself, standing out for some weird activity or etc, the most competitive colleges (and remember, that’s about more than just getting in,) still do expect a kid to be able to somewhat conform to performance standards and interpersonal expectations while there.