ED has never been binding if you cannot pay for a school that accepts you. Though the standard route is to apply for Financial Aid and allow the school to offer you a package, colleges have always released students from the agreement under dire circumstances. A change in financial situation making payments undoable has always been an escape clause. I know families who have gone from full pay able to unable to meet living expenses due to job loss, illness, catastrophe. I would call this current COVID19 crisis a catastrophe for many families. I know our family income has been impacted and will likely be on the downtrend for the next year at least.
Personally, if I had a student with college acceptances in hand right now, the financial scene would be very different for us from what it was last year when applications were submitted, certainly any ED apps. It would be a foolish financial commitment to make to pay 4 years of $80k college costs if much lower options are available. Also travel very far, by air vs car, would not be a choice Id want to support. We would have been in the tipping point of such commitments with all things optimal. A disaster of this magnitude would knock us out of contention for a full pay, far away school.