I do not know how it works at Penn, but . . . . you might be interested in looking at this from Penn’s Student Records System: [SRS Admissions table elements]
At that website, you will find what is described as the “SRS UNDERGRAD ADMISSIONS Table - Data Element Index.” Since your question is about athletic “soft support,” look in the Table at Athletic_Rating, which says: “The student’s athletic rating established by intercollegiate athletics and undergraduate admissions. Non-athletes will have a rating of NULL. A rating greater than ‘2’ indicates that the students is considered a recruited athlete. Values: NULL; 1-6.”
My best guess (again, I don’t know), is that soft support means either a 1 or 2, “non-recruited athlete” rating. The unknown is whether these Athletic Rating points are funneled directly into the 1-9 Non-Academic_Rating. Since 18 is the highest combined Academic + Non-Academic Rating, picking up 1 or 2 extra Non-Academic points could be very valuable, if that is how it works. For comparison, look at the Alumni Affiliation values: 1 Grad/Prof Alum; 2 Undergrad Alum; 3 Alum of both. If “soft support” is worth as much as having a Parent who graduated from Penn, that is pretty valuable in ED.
Most of what I wrote above is speculation, but my suggestion is that “soft support” may have a significant impact.