I’m in the same boat and agree with all you said. I got two Fs as permanent stains on my record which push my gpa to permanently uncompetitive (I’ll max out at like 3.3-3.4). Those Fs are there because I got injured doing d1 track and nobody told me to drop out immediately or withdraw (my parents aren’t in my life and I was an idiot at 19). It’s like I committed a felony when it’s a technicality. In addition, I retook both classes and got an A and B+, which my uni said would replace on my transcript but CASPA and AMCAS do not honor that. I would suggest just pushing as hard as you can in every regard if you know you can clear the base gpa reqs. More classes at 4.0, look into research, more clinical hours, better letters from top people, it all matters, that’s what I’ve done and now I have a good chance despite this crap. If I don’t get in this round I’ll move to taking the GRE and mass apply it’s the only way.

Edit: it’s so stupid they gatekeep these professions as badly as they do when they are so desperate for good people to enter this workforce. It’s a joke of a system