...having filled out the forms, it seems like it might hurt the poor less than it hurts the middle class. Schools like ND say they will handle all of your need, but they also think that you should basically spend ALL of your non-401k/IRA savings on college, even if you have more kids to go to college later, even if you need to pay for a wedding, or buy a new car. Notre Dame, which claims to handle all of our need, offered our kid one of the worst financial aid packages. Once you give them all your non-retirement money, then you might get a break. If you don't have non-retirement savings, you are at their "help point" already.
Having said that, schools with lesser academic reputations than Notre Dame has will often compete to get good students to turn down Notre Dame and go to their school. To do that, they give scholarships out as enticements. One of my kids got a full ride to a smaller school, with room and board. That is hard to turn down. After all, those schools have people with Ph.D.'s who teach their classes, just like Notre Dame does.