“The thread is about taking APs to impress (presumably, adcoms. Or other high schoolers?) So, this isn’t about assuming, it’s about the thread’s topic.” Actually, the OP said nothing about taking APs to impress. The OP asked whether colleges would be impressed by that many APs. My take on it was that the OP is taking 12 APs in their high school curriculum and wants to know whether this is something that will impress colleges. That’s different than asking, should I sign up for 12 APs in order to impress colleges? If you think those are the same question, you are missing the point I’ve been trying to make. Just as asking, is winning a statewide piano competition something that will impress colleges? is not the same as asking "should I go win a statewide piano competition just to impress colleges?
I’m not advocating taking AP classes just to rack up AP classes, but there is a very condescending attitude by many posters on here which completely overlooks that in most schools the core courses outside of AP are an intellectual wasteland. These classes are pretty much torture for “truly intellectual, interesting students”. You also should consider that sometimes kids find subjects boring because they are underchallenged. My younger daughter has liked math better every year since she started the high school sequence and it got harder. Same thing with older one and languages. Older one completed APs in her least favorite subject but she still found some of the material to be interesting and felt it was worth it.