To be clear...I feel that a candidate's political views, religion, sexual orientation, family plans during residency, and other matters that are really nobody's business are out of bounds and have no place in any sort of rank list decision. And as recent events make very clear, DEI based decision making can vary widely from state to state.
Apart from those hot topic items above...what I meant to say to the OP is that all candidates can expect to have common subjective factors like your letters or recommendation, personal statement, extracurricular activities, and your interview play significant roles in how programs view you as a potential resident. This are things that are somewhat within your control, and a candidate that does not take the time to address these parts of their application is putting themselves at a serious disadvantage to the ones that do.
Nimbus, what I meant by the process becoming more and more subjective is that it is simply becoming extremely difficult to tell candidates apart based on their medical school experiences. Things like schools that are entirely pass/fail, schools that give 90% of the class "honors" on rotations, USMLE Step 1 becoming pass/fail, students taking 6 weeks off to study for Step 2 are all things that are homogenizing the entire applicant pool to the point where it is very difficult to distinguish which students prioritized excelling at the tasks given to them in school and which students did the minimum to pass.