To be able to make a claim of originality, the developer should figure out how to improve his product without anyone holding his hand. If on the other hand a specific reason for rejection were to be given, doesn't the critic have the right to benefit from the fruit of his free engineering advice?
People end up liking new, innovative products for reasons they may not fully understand. Rejection should play by the same rules.
> ... but without a feedback it's really difficult to understand why the application was rejected.
Yep. Just like real life, where individuals sort out reality on their own.
I think pretty much all teams are great. Perhaps there isn't a very specific reason for rejection once you get past by the alumni filters and is evaluated by PG himself.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the alumni are filtering teams based on their own values and reality. I think alumni having any contact at all with the selection process makes it extremely biased and will generate a lot of look-a-like startups.
It's not that they are bad or good, but this is how humans work, bias is natural.
I dare YC to choose 10% of teams at random next time, not even reading their application. I bet the results will be the same, if not, better than the average.