This is not YC's fault. I am not sure why you would blame YC for this. As you said, founders should focus on making great companies (not just great products),

This is not YC's fault. I am not sure why you would blame YC for this. As you said, founders should focus on making great companies (not just great products), so they should not focus on the outcome release time. If you get into YC that's great. If not, you are still going to build your company anyways. There's not going to be a change in direction of your company either way. YC is an accelerator. It accelerates your progress up a path, but ultimately you are responsible for setting the path and running up it. Please don't consider suicide over a YC application. There's going to be a lot more obstacles ahead, that will be more stressful than applying to YC.