It would allow prospective applicants to think about whether to apply, and hopefully keep the pile a manageable size for the people reading it.
The numbers reveal that it's hard, but startups were ALWAYS hard. It's still the hardest thing I've ever done and most founders say the same. As far as YC is concerned, we don't want people to try to make this easier for us. One of the unique properties of YC is that we're trying to fund startups at scale and that means we don't want founders thinking about trying to make it manageable for us by bowing out. That's how I miss out on someone on the margins. It's one of the reasons why I love working on the YC software team to try and solve these challenges. So please, don't take away my work. :)
My favorite founders are filled with grit and perseverance. They don't calculate whether they can change the world before starting, they just start. So if you're ready to do something hard and feel like it's within you to change the world, please do apply...the numbers be damned.
Thats why fellowship experiment is going on, but I think you guys would have more time to read applications and "discover" great startups if you didn't encourage every steve-jobs-wannabe to apply.
just my 2 cents
Average people, that do average things, generally think in terms of the odds "what's my chance of this, or that.." when deciding about things.
Extraordinary people don't care about their chances, they do things because they are determined or obsessed about whatever it is they are doing, and stop at nothing to make it happen. These are the types of people that go on to build great companies and are the types of people YC generally looks for in the applications.
So if you're the type of person that doesn't care about the stats: you should definitely apply!