> The goal of this process isn't to find the "best" people to admit

That is exactly the goal of this process. Otherwise why does someone with a 4.0 GPA have any better chance than someone with a 3.2 GPA? If all you cared about was "qualified" then there would be some minimum threshold and candidates above that threshold would be chosen at random.

> there's always going to be an imperfect system doing the picking.

"Perfection is impossible" doesn't mean that every imperfect alternative is equally bad.