I still think the MORE competitive colleges ( I know some schools have a minimum gpa/sat that will get you xyz, etc.) get way deeper into the course ciriculum that generated the gpa than just the “stats” the HS sends.
Every AO from the more selective schools that has visited our HS (public Fairfield Co., CT) over the years has preached the “there better be a high number AP courses” on the transcript mantra.
Another thought. If this isn’t the case, how would some of the better prep school grads be evaluated ? Many of those schools do not even assign an alpha/numeric grade to specific courses (or so I’m told).