Early Action Vs Regular At Big Public Schools?

The more and more I have read to the conclusion that EA admittance rates are artificially inflated by athlete admissions and attempts to get baseline of certain demographics. And if you are out of state, aren't applying to a program that is a very fixed number of seats (nursing, CS), don't believe you would be competitive for named merit based scholarships and believe that you will have a senior fall that would boost your application strength (potentially stronger test scores and additional rigor) that you would be better served to apply regular decision vs EA. EA numbers are inflated.

I've read a lot from Georgia and Georgia Tech admissions suggesting this that has sent me down a rabbit hole on this and would be interested to hear perspectives.

I read an NYT article from someone who interviewed a lot of admissions deans and overall they described a process where EA turn in deferrals which essentially just go to die. Once the admissions office gets to regular decision time they look at these applicants first in a more holistic approach before they go back to deferred applicants.

I would be very curious to hear what others think about my conclusion.