I feel you, however I would say at the very least I find the YC submission process a very useful exercise and encourage all people thinking of doing a startup t

I feel you, however I would say at the very least I find the YC submission process a very useful exercise and encourage all people thinking of doing a startup to complete it, even if you don't submit it. When I submitted to YC and got an interview with them, they were extremely courteous to me, way more so than the VCs and investors I'd dealt with, and while they ultimately didn't accept me they sent me a lot of feedback with how I could improve for next time. That is much appreciated and I won't forget it. As a counter point it would be nice to see some data around predictors such as degrees, connections etc.