Thanks for the useful/thorough post.
With regards to the section in bold, do you (or anyone else) have a list of schools that expect you to commit without providing any financial aid information? That information will be useful to current and future applicants and may make a difference in choosing schools for applications. It seems a little unfair to expect a student to commit without any information on the financial end. What if there is a problem with getting federal student loans due to something unexpected (e.g. lifetime caps, etc.)? Then you're out of a seat and your deposit.