One reason college admissions offices look at test scores is to offset or compensate for grade inflation or deflation. Our son was never a grade grubber but we told him we expected mostly A’s (4.0’s) because he was smarter than the vast majority of his classmates. The latter showed up in his test scores and in his extracurricular achievements in debate and journalism. I don’t think his GPA (ca. 3.8) hurt him in admissions. And it didn’t matter in the longer run.