An entrepreneur's perspective on the YC/Yuri Milner deal

Up until now, I've looked at YC as something that wasn't a doable scenario, because they require the founders to move to the Bay area and live out there for the 3 months, while investing a fairly small amount (I think somewhere around $17,000 is the norm, no?) Anyway, for somebody in my shoes, that is, doing a self-funded, bootstrapped startup while working a day job, the requirement to move would mean needing to quit the day job, but the initial investment would leave - for me anyway - too short of a runway to justify it. At the end of 3 months, I'd come back here (presumably) and need to find another day job, and need to find it pretty quick, in order to pay rent and car payment, etc.

But the $150,000 investment option should be good for at least a year of runway, enabling a founder to work on their project full-time. Given a year, I'd feel pretty good about the chances of getting some traction and making a go of things.

So where, before, I looked at the YC application as something to do just to force myself to think about things, and maybe do a "mock YC interview" with some local people as an exercise, now I'm seriously interested in actually applying for a future cycle (if this offer continues as future cycles come along.)

I see it as changing the whole game for somebody in my position... from YC being something I'd have to turn down even if accepted, into something that is a very real, practical scenario.

Of course getting accepted is a whole different story, but hey... you can't win if you don't play, right?

Is there some sort of grandfather rule?