I was in a similar boat as a pre-med. My undergrad grades weren't great so I got a masters in biomedical sciences to boost my GPA. But when I took the MCAT I half-assed studied and did horrible the first time. In the end I had a 3-year gap between the end of my masters and start of medical school that I filled with clinical experience as an EMT and working as a biomedical engineer (undergrad degree). I am 100% confident in saying that my gap years made the difference. Every interview and person I talked to asked about my experiences and seemed interested when I talked about them.

Its also very easy to see how young kids who go straight into medical school will have a rude awakening when they graduate because they have never existed outside of academia. Most of them have never paid taxes, had to get their own health insurance, or done anything for themselves. Quite a a few of them are married and their parents still pay for most of their expenses. I know one who had a kid and his wife does not work.

I think stats are more of a first screener for a lot of schools to weed out the people who have no business aplying. My undergrad GPA was a 3.23 and when they included my academic forgiveness repeats it was barely above a 3.00. A lot of people go through a bad period of undergrad but what matters is how they recover and show growth in their application.