I had a mixed bag when contacting faculty. Some emailed me back quickly or after one "resend". Some, I never heard from. I ended up applying to all of my original schools, save one. As you stated, I found a few people at each of the schools (usually a main person and then some faculty whose research is somewhat tangential to mine) and mentioned them in my SoPs.
In the end, it all works out. My wife applied for PhD History programs in 2015 (she's a 3rd year now, finishing up comps!). She was both accepted at and rejected from schools that she had great conversations with. Sometimes, there are things going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. All we can do is fill out the apps, do our best on the GRE, write a decent SOP and hope for the best. But, those little things (attempting to contact, solid LoRs, mentioning POIs in SoPs) can make a difference.
Good luck! I'm already anxious with waiting!