I’m going to quote myself from What is the impact of kids applying to so many schools? - #313 by AustenNut. Although I wrote it about the impact of kids applying to many schools, I think it also pertains to people’s feelings about holistic admissions.
I think this conversation is only relevant to a small portion of high school students and their families; the type of students who are hanging out here on CC. Only when students are mostly applying to schools with acceptance rates below 20% does this really become an issue. The vast majority of universities accept much larger percentages of students; many accept the majority of applicants. If students create a balanced list of schools where they are happy to attend any one of them, then the whole exercise in trying to maximize your chances at highly rejective schools is moot.