You can pick a different random set of inputs and come to the opposite conclusion. It could be true that there is no correlation between true "merit" and test

You can pick a different random set of inputs and come to the opposite conclusion. It could be true that there is no correlation between true "merit" and test scores when you get to, say, the 99%th percentile. Especially since the predictive ability of these tests must be suspect now that you can study strategies for them. In that situation, Harvard shouldn't value a 1600 any more than a 1540.