Will someone chime in with an opinion on situations where a representative from a dealership submits an application to the bank for themselves or for their family members, with that relationship being the mitigator for exception approval (high LTV, for example)?

How is this different than when a request is for someone else? Do you have some type of special relationship with the dealer? Is the dealer going to pay the loan if the borrower defaults?
I don't see why this would be a mitigator, unless there is some further information.