In my case they did not say no CLI with the soft pull, they did a soft pull and the increase was denied. Atleast thats the way it was put forth by the CSR, so I assumed that doing a hard pull would not change the result.
She said I would receive a letter with the reasons for denial.
Will update when I get as the only reason I think I wss denied was util.
I can't speak on whether the CLIs always go through but I know that they're quick to offer a soft inquiry as the first option. (The way they present it, it sounds like they just use their own internal scoring system based on your utilization and usage.) Both of my CLIs from Discover (2x each time) have come through soft pulls.
Starting Score: 664