This thread offers some great advice. OP, I have the impression that you’re only running our thoughts through your own filters- you like your ECs and there’s a backstory to explain the lower grades in freshman/soph year.
Until you can stand back and imagine the impressions on adcoms, you won’t “get it.”
This isn’t about more EC focus. YOU said your issue is not misplaced priorities. But the point is how adcoms will react.
A lof of new-ish kid posters are taking this same view: that if they’re satisfied, that should be good enough. But that’s not a fully-formed (or informed) view.
The choice is yours.