YC is much more likely to bow from moral arguments (with widespread support) and bad press. For example if YC started running reeducation camps (let's imagine they were doing something questionably wrong like forcing people to learn how to run startups well), they'd face blow-back (from the subset of people who are firmly against reeducation camps) that I am firmly sure would cause them to reverse course fairly quickly.

As far as the demanding/shrewd/exploitative investor bit:

Sri Lanka:

- http://www.slguardian.org/2020/06/sri-lankans-feel-humiliate...

- https://biznakenya.com/how-china-took-over-sri-lanka-port/

Greece:

- https://apjjf.org/2017/13/Mathews.html

Ghana:

- https://www.dw.com/en/oil-promises-ghanas-dreams-of-black-go... (YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b58b-BvWEpo) -- it's quite difficult to find negative coverage of the Ghana deal right now, but this provides some evidence for the idea that some of the promises are not being kept and weren't as beneficial as Ghana may have been lead to believe.

Again, depending on how you look at these (which is often a result of where you stand in the global economy), these are just brilliant business moves -- advanced risk analysis and the right convincing of the right people in power and unfortunate conditions for the other side. YC is probably not going to take over a sea port because of back-payment, or similarly a bank that wanted to innovate and develop neo-bank style operations (as an example).

In general I think it's safe to say that YC will be more forgiving on the revenue-target/KPI target side.