A program's opinion of you is part of what a "good fit" means. Psychiatry is so ridiculously uncompetitive that many good programs, especially ones not in the major metro areas, flat out have difficulty recruiting good residents. I think it's entirely possible to match at a program and that program not be excited about having you match there. They may have had to go much further down on their rank list than they liked. You may be thrilled at the prospect of matching at the program, but if the program isn't as excited about you, that may adversely affect your experience there. If there are two programs that you like equally, and one is excited about having you, and the other is lukewarm, it's pretty clear you're better off somewhere with people who are happy to see you on July 1st.
The value of a thread like this is that it allows us to interpret to some degree the info we get. If you've received five emails from a program director massaging your ego, and so has everyone else, that tells you the program is liberal in their praise, and that they're casting a wide net. If a program is much more conservative in their contact with applicants, and you've had some positive post-interview interactions, that lets you more genuinely assess that the program is excited about you and the way they see you fitting into their program.
Let's take some examples on some not-so-mythical programs:
Program A is generally considered an absolute top program, is well know for its intensity, and famously attracts a certain type of resident. Applicant Q might know that matching at Program A would mean top-notch training, unlimited post-residency job opportunities, but with a very intense lifestyle during residency. Perhaps Applicant Q isn't sure whether she would fit in at Program A. She can imagine situations in which she would fit very well there, and situations in which she might be miserable, but she doesn't know. Then Applicant Q starts getting phone calls from Program A's program director, telling her how excited they would be to have her there, and how they think she would be a great fit at the program. Since the program director probably has some experience knowing whether an applicant would be a good fit, Applicant Q starts believing that she would be a good fit there. But wait, Applicant Q reads on SDN that just about everybody who interviewed at Program A is getting the same phone calls. The program director's call does not, in fact, contain information that could help the applicant decide whether she would actually fit well at Program A. Sobered, she is able to consider that her original ambivalence was more accurate, and can make her decision more objectively.
Or consider Program B, a program with an excellent regional reputation that tends to attract few residents from outside the area. On your interview day, the program director tells you that he doesn't send many emails or phone calls. The residents you talk to corroborate that they heard very little feedback from the program director, and that you shouldn't be turned off if you don't get love letters. But then, come February, you do get some very nice personalized emails discussing why you would fit well with Program B from the program director, and when you check with your friends who are also good applicants, and with folks online, you find that the feedback you've just received was pretty unique, and that the program may have some unique properties you hadn't paid much attention to that would make the program a particularly supportive place for you to train. Thus, you give the program a deeper look, and find that the place fits much better with your priorities than you realized.
I could go on and on, but point being, there are plenty of scenarios in which knowing about the recruitment habits of a program can help you interpret the feedback they are giving you, not about whether you will match there per se, but about whether that feedback gives you any indication that the program director, who knows her own residents, sees you fitting in well, or is simply scrambling to try to make sure they actually fill. You could very well match into a program that isn't as excited about you as you are about them. And there are plenty of scenarios where that would be less than ideal.
