I agree, even as OP. Malcom Gladwell's writings on elite universities have gone viral, and even though some good points are sometimes made, many are just stretching the truth for clicks.
As for the general grade inflation problem: It is confusing that Harvard's grade distribution is so different than schools with similarly strong student bodies like Princeton, Columbia, UChicago, Berkeley, etc. Especially very, very large portion of students are legacy / recruited athletes / very wealthy donor parents. According to the affirmative action lawsuit, over 10% of the student body alone was on the "Dean's interest list," a very elite group of autoadmits, for example.
Berkeley has no legacy admission...
Interesting that they would mix Korean nationals and Japanese Americans together. I wonder what the group dynamic was like. It also reminds me of Silmido and Unit 684, except the S. Korean government cancelled the mission since North and South relations were improving, so the soldiers killed their trainers and committed mutiny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_684
Young Oak Kim https://www.thenmusa.org/biographies/young-oak-kim/
Colonel 100th Infantry Battalion, 442d Regimental Combat Team, 31st Infantry Regiment