it's simply that a kid with a significantly lower GPA and ACT got his spot. If BYU cites that the essay was superior, what they are basically admitting is "the kid who was less qualified based on 3.5 years of academic work during the entirety of his high school experience managed to find a better essay writer/editor; so instead of more heavily weighting the things a kid can actually control we instead decided to give preference to the one aspect of the application which can most easily be forged/bought/bluffed/manipulated which the applicant may have not even touched."