Actually, we consciously try to make this so. We try to make the questions on the application questions that would be useful for a startup to answer, even if they didn't submit it, and we try to make in-person interviews de facto consulting sessions that would be worth the time even for startups that didn't get funding.
Obviously it's harder to guarantee the latter, but it's what we aim for.
You succeed fabulously with the first goal. Our application wasn't considered by ycombinator last spring, but the exercise of working though the questions has proven invaluable several times over the last few months. In another job I've seen $300/hour consultants do no better for a group than that application form did for us - and we considered that consultant good value.
Sorry to be blowing sunshine. But I'm sure you thought through that application form carefully and you should know that it's effective.
Obviously it's harder to guarantee the latter, but it's what we aim for.