It would not surprise me if many of the applications were not closely read. I would imagine at the schools receiving high volume of QB finalists trying to match–like you mention–that they’d have to employ the same review tactics as they do otherwise–a brief skim of each app, sorting them into piles for further consideration, etc. Especially given how many extra supplements the hyper-elites require now, I am not surprised they only give a close, real read to the strongest candidates. It’s kind of a bummer, but regardless, QB still gets candidates–including those who otherwise might not get consideration from the Ivies at all–a chance to be read. (but it also says that perhaps the best strategy in QB is to try and match with less competitive schools…)