I have seen programs that do not do the match, and believe me it is way more beneficial to applicants to have a match. Friends of mine have been offered acceptances and had to commit by the end of the day or their spot goes away, and they have no idea about their status at other schools, so at top programs you have a small selection of really top kids who have turned down other acceptances just to interview at these top programs, so the competition can get fierce since these are kids who thought they could do better than the acceptance they already received, and they are condident enough in how strong they are to turn other places down before knowing their status at these top programs.
The solution is extremely simple, and is already being done. Follow the medical school model. AMCAS lets med students apply to a huge number of places, however, some schools who don't want every Joe Schmo throwing their hat in the ring will create a long secondary application(Duke is notorious for this). Other schools who want large numbers of applicants have secondaries requesting their names, current addresses, and money. While the money aspect sucks, the fellowship programs can simply not charge a secondary fee and computerize the whole process so that the secondary is automatically added to the applicant's electronic file. One essay is all it takes to limit absurd numbers of people applying.
