^ Yes. I think what’s new is the dashboard, the tool. This “environmental info” has been available a long time. Not just from the School Report. You can Google and find various sorts of demographics and assessments. Adcoms have not been guessing. CB probably got the data the same way.
Agree with @lookingforward that the information has been around and used by AOs for a while. As far as ACT scores go they are most likely using converted SAT scores if they only have ACT scores. Many if not most schools convert to SAT anyway so they readily have that converted data.
We live at the very edge of one zip code - literally one block over and the demographics are completely different. I’m sure it didn’t hurt my D’s chances even though in reality our residence is more in line with the demographics 1 block away.
I think local demographics work best with extremes. Many zip codes or local areas have, as a friend put it, "The wealthy neurosurgeon living next to the hourly wage earner. Some uber rich areas have diverse SES.