So, and I may have misunderstood, a company can now get into YC, but might not be invested in by YC?

So its a two tier system. We like you gorgeous, but not enough to sleep with you (sorry, invest in you).

Why not just pick the ones you will sleep with (sorry invest in). Why have the half way signal? If investors don't like investing pro-rata, that's not because they don't like making money - its because they think YC is not picking all winners.

Isn't that the problem? Competition?

Edit: Perhaps I need to understand raising finance better. But, re-reading the announcement as quoted, it still seems there is a two-tier system, and it looks to me that YC will have placed a bullseye on its shirt - if they will only pick 1/3 of companies, then any investor must assume YC has some extra information in the market for lemons - in which case the simple solution is just wait for YC to invest / SAFE / whatever, and invest in that. If a YC company tries to raise a round without a letter from YC, it just won't get anything ... ?

Instead of every investor now either making its own decisions, they just wait for YC to signal its own special knowledge.

I would like to see how many companies close a round without YC from now on?