The move to SFBA is a real issue, and an obstacle for anyone with family commitments. I'm not sure what they can realistically do about it, since part of the premise of the program is that you're benefiting from being physically proximate to them.

The rest of this, I think you're wrong about.

I'm at a YC company right now (Fly.io) --- technically, I'm a YC founder at Fly.io --- and I've spent the last several years working directly with YC companies, and I haven't perceived any distinctive "80 hour work week, subsist on ramen" lifestyle out of those companies. I know why people believe this about YC companies, and I think it's a convenient fiction YC itself sort of deliberately doesn't knock back, but I don't think there's much truth to it.

I used to think 7% was ludicrous for what YC was bringing to the table, but YC brings a lot more to the table now than it did when I thought that. There are cynical ways to look at the YC benefit and there are generous ways to look at it, but either way: if you're going to go on to raise more money, you're getting something significantly more than $125k for the share you give up.

I'd be more concerned about the "$125k for a founding team is ludicrous" thing but for the fact that for me, and for most of the people I talk to about this stuff, the alternative to YC is bootstrapping and consulting. If you're looking at the money YC gives you for the session as the entire financial permission structure for your company, you weren't going to succeed no matter who invested in your company.