I can't figure out the reason why some of these companies got selected into YC. I can see why Bikanta, Helion Energy, Ginkgo Bioworks, BitAccess, and ProductHunt might get in. However, some other companies look like run of the mill startup.

I use non-YC companies on https://news.ycombinator.com/show, ProductHunt, and AngelList for comparison. In comparison the quality signal of recent YC companies (the ones not mentioned above and some others) is not that high* compared to Non YC companies. I looked at the profile of the founders, their twitter and github pages and most importantly the product; nothing stands out so much.

*I am not saying the YC companies are bad, I am just saying they seem to be of the same quality as what is out there. I would expect recent YC companies to have a higher quality signal than what is out there.