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.