the edge case i meant was the second person: "person who can barely study for the SAT because they're, I don't know, working a job or helping raise their siblings, and only does marginally worse than the person who devoted their life to it"

The circumstances of this imaginary person would prevent that from succeeding in college if they are accepted and we should be able to attack the circumstances that prevent highschool students from being the best student they can with social programs, instead of moving away from merit-based college acceptance criteria.

That person isn't an edge case or imaginary, and is probably the norm or at least not rare in many districts.

Same point stands.

Their circumstances are not conducive to any kind of learning whether before or during college and should be addressed instead of getting rid of merit-based college admissions