University projects are incredibly valuable, but only the rare exception produces something commercially viable much less supported and marketed enough to be relevant to consumers. Even in CS, an academic field with disproportionately strong industry ties, projects like this a rare exception (see how venerated Spark is); it's even rarer in other fields.

This is a different sort of work than raw R&D, but it's still difficult and relevant—just in a different way. I completely sympathize with not being interested in it, but that says more about you (and often me) than it does about YC.

If anything, the role YC plays is actually more important in biotech than in software because creating, deploying, marketing and supporting a software project is an easier problem with more existing support outside of YC. Software takes less resources, has less risks and has more buy-in from funding sources and other parts of the community than biotech. (At least, and especially, in SV.)

But, unless you're excited by an accessible version of something specific, none of this is going to be particularly relevant to you. Not only is this perfectly fine, but it bodes remembering for people in the startup community who tend to get so enamored with and immersed in what they're doing that they forget that it is not universal.