I totally disagree with #1.
Some students are ready for college level work in HS, but socially and emotionally are better suited to the HS environment. Maybe this only the top 10%, but there is a group that needs more challenges than the typical HS curriculum provides and a heavy AP course load can fill that gap. If that is seen as “being obsessed with impressing adcoms” that is short sighted.
There are plenty of good universities that highly weight course rigor, the kids that challenge themselves with a heavy AP schedule (and corresponding high GPA) will still be a good fit for those universities. This is reflected in the “GPA of the top 25% of Admitted Freshman” statistic. How do you graduate with a weighted GPA over 4.5, without a heavy AP course load? Look around and you will find PLENTY of schools whose adcoms were impressed with heavy AP course loads.
“If AP courses are not offered, then no one is penalized for not taking them.” - What about the higher achieving students that find regular level classes too easy, they are penalized for not being challenged enough. What about the student that gets a 98% in regular Chemistry with little effort while another student gets a 91%, both get a 4.0. How is that fair to the student who could has done much more, but has no way to show it?
Being in an IB program is not the same as taking AP classes.
DE is not the same as AP. Most AP classes at my D’s school are more rigorous that the corresponding courses at the local CC. Also, the students in the AP classes are the high aptitude / high achievers that tend to push themselves and each other. The local CC, while a good school, mostly caters to those that did not get into a four year college after HS or are returning to school. There are very few “I never made lower than A in my life, and I have a 2250 SAT” in the local CC.