My options in Florida were:
FSU (4.16 GPA),
UF (4.5ish),
UCF (3.9-4.4),
USF (4.0-4.4),
FAU (3.3-4.2),

And a handful of smaller universities. These are all average range of Freshman high school GPA’s. Not college credit GPA’s. Not transfer GPA’s.
I graduated high school with something like a 3.1 GPA. If I wanted to go to a bigger university, in Florida, right out of college.. I would have been denied by every single one. Instead, I went to a community college. Got my AA, and transferred to a big university.

I really don’t understand why this is so difficult to understand? Universities do in fact want a high GPA for someone right of of high school, this isn’t an opinion of mine. My sister had over a 4.0 and got into any college she wanted. My friends that did mediocre in high school all went to smaller schools.