"Colleges care about usnews rankings. one of the ranking criteria is enrolled students’ sat scores, while gpa isn’t a component in calculating ranks. That goes to show that it’s very hard to compare whether gpa or sat is more important. "
While technically true, USNWR has reduced how much test scores count in their methodology, indicating they find it less important than other factors. They simply can’t include GPA as it is not universal among high schools. Some give GPA on a 4.0 scale, some on a 5.0 scale, some on a percentage. Weighting for AP/Honors/IB also can be vastly different between high schools. There are also all different levels of grade inflation. So the omission of GPA from USNWR rankings should not be interpreted to mean they think test scores are more important.
AOs will tell you which they consider more important. Colleges will even note it on their CDS. The point is that the tippy tops expect admitted students to excel in both areas, and indeed, most of their applicants do.