It's also worth noting that the SATs are offered multiple times a year, which makes retaking them a lot easier.

The big pressure cooker exams in Korea are once a year, so if you choose to retake it (and many do) you are set back for a year.

You can even go to many colleges without the sat (nothing prestigious ofc)

Many top schools are no longer requiring test scores in fact. There is an argument that the test itself is somehow biased against under-represented groups. Also, less nobly, if a school makes test scores optional, their average test scores increase (which is a factor in rankings) since students will only submit them if they have good scores.

> Many top schools are no longer requiring test scores in fact.

When I applied to college, there were a number of schools that has something that was “optional” but word on the street was that you’d have no hope of getting in without it. How “optional” are these, really?

I have been on admissions committees and there is of course the possibility in your mind that students who did not submit scores probably had bad ones. I certainly prefer having scores. But when tests are optional, plenty people will also just want to save the $50 or whatever it costs to take the thing. Particularly from poorer families. So you can't be sure and hate to reject a super candidate on this reason alone. Also there's always some people in admissions who are adamantly anti-test anyway.

They do look deeper into the high school's reputation and individual course grades to make up the missing info that the test would have provided.

It’s probably like a lot of companies that offer remote work: if you have demonstrated already you are world class, they’ll make exceptions.

FWIW, all the people I know who went to “world class” universities did all the “optional” things.