YC is slowly drifting away from its original mission.
I think that they tend to fund people who they think will have the highest chance of success. You end up with priorities like:
1. Previous successes
2. Company with traction
3. Employee at Stripe/Google/Apple/etc
4. Smart MIT/Harvard/Stanford student
5. Misc. high magnitude achievements
I think what you're seeing might be a higher number of 1-3 applying to YC, not leaving much room for 4 and 5. The four and fives who do get accepted are extraordinarily impressive.
I agree with you because (afterall) they aren't a charity. They makes money by investing early in these start-ups, so they need to focus on bringing people through their program that have a higher chance of success.
1. Previous successes
2. Company with traction
3. Employee at Stripe/Google/Apple/etc
4. Smart MIT/Harvard/Stanford student
5. Misc. high magnitude achievements
I think what you're seeing might be a higher number of 1-3 applying to YC, not leaving much room for 4 and 5. The four and fives who do get accepted are extraordinarily impressive.