That’s not how it works. Please look at the actual published admit rates. The admit rates historically for the 4.8-5.0 range is slightly lower than the 4.6-4.8 range. After a certain GPA threshold, a higher threshold has very little marginal impact and it will come down to the remaining 12 of the 13 review factors.
Here’s data directly from Berkeley. The admit rate in COE for the 4.8-5.0 GPA cohort is 18.7% and for the 4.6-4.8 range is 18.8%. >80% of applicants in the GPA range 4.6-5.0 still got denied and guess what a whole lot of people with a lower GPA got in, albeit on much lower admit rates.
People obsess about the GPA because they feel like they lost an A somewhere or messed up a test in high school etc while ignoring the 12 other factors that drive the holistic admissions process. Cal means it when they say they are looking for leaders with a well-rounded portfolio.
https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/ug-admissions.html