Is it possible your smaller goal was the very reason why you did not get into YC? So to further your thought experiment, you may only have gotten into YC if you

Is it possible your smaller goal was the very reason why you did not get into YC? So to further your thought experiment, you may only have gotten into YC if you agreed to make your goal bigger, you would have had an easier time, and your startup would have been sold for hundreds of millions of dollars by now.. What an alternative to ponder.