Basic things: are there enough chairs, are they compliant with maximum occupancy restrictions of the building, are there enough snacks.

Less basic things: No on said YC Hacks way of getting people in the door is better. It's just the way they're choosing to handle it. YC seems to want to expand the community and this looks like a pretty good way to do it.

Despite the very high bar of getting accepted into the YC program, I don't think YC is trying to be "exclusive" based on excluding people. 90% or more of what pg, sama, and the YC partners tell YC companies can be found online.

I don't think anyone is saying this is better because it's invite-only. I think it's invite-only so they can keep the total # manageable and make sure all the participants are going to be actual builders instead of wasting others time.