> trying to trick/persuade/convince (choose freely) thousands (literaly) of people to go this path, benefits tremendously ycombinator - not the persuaded founders.

Why so negative

It can be fun for the founders also if the startup fails, and not always anything to regret

And good for society in general with more innovation, eg YC's request for startups page: https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/

Many things there are really good for this planet