To begin, not all Eagle Scouts apply to service academies. Only 2% of all Boy scouts become Eagle scouts. While you can argue the case that not all Eagle Scouts are leaders and they could have "skated" past requirements, it is not likely that these are the same who are applying to service academies. Just showing a class profile would not show weight. Since there are so many Varsity athletes, would that mean Varsity athletics are given the most weight? Or is it the easiest to become a part of? Only 10% class presidents or VP's? Does this mean they are not given much weight either or any of the low percentage achievements? I beg to differ. I believe they are lower because of the difficulty of attaining the achievement like being elected to ASB(Stuco) for President. And I believe it is a trend that you will see in any achievement. The harder it is, the lower the percentage of success; the easier the achievement would denote a higher percentage of success.Therefore a low percentage of class profile.
I do agree that some have done projects that do not demonstrate any leadership and some are pushed by parents, but these are not the ones who attend and/or complete the full length of the service academies. Because it is all self-will once you start. Eagle Scout projects are meant to show leadership in that you are to be the project director and manager. Arranging work schedules, manpower, drawing up the blueprints, raising the funds, following through with the project not in that order of course, but all those along with numerous other tasks. For example, my project, we built a 150 foot block retaining wall to reduce hillside erosion and create usable space for seating for the baseball field. I had to recruit the manpower, get donations for all the material, arrange tasks, food, schedules, among many other things. This project in all totaled around 5k along with close to 500 man hours of work and get this done in about 4 weekends. Project could have easily cost 10k because a lot of what I got was donations like a backhoe rental, dumptrucks, and numerous other things not to include labor. I am not trying to place myself on any kind of pedestal, but I want to show why becoming an Eagle Scout would show leadership.
As stated earlier, I'm a 3 sport varsity athlete(and represented Team USA in a football game in Japan), the school ASB president, an Eagle Scout, part of the NHS, did drama and plenty of public speaking. Its not that I'm against any of the other activities, or not for them at all because I did all of them as well, but Eagle Scout was much more difficult than other of those EC's and I believe much more rewarding as well. And btw, I didn't complete my Eagle when I was 12 or 14 like some of those kids you hear about who learn very little and alot of whom have very poor projects often led by their parents, I completed my Eagle when I was 17 after 6 years of work and fun.