Not every college places the same weight on each factor. To answer your hypothetical, public universities frequently weight numbers (GPA, class rank, test scores) heavily – sometimes providing automatic admission if the numbers are good enough. Many private colleges also primarily look at numbers. As a general rule of thumb, extracurriculars, awards, essays, etc. become more important as selectivity increases; many applicants to Harvard or MIT have amazing stats, so it’s other factors that can make or break an applicant.
The Common Data Sets, though not always made accessible by colleges, are somewhat helpful for figuring out what a college is looking for (see section C7).