That's not true of most YC acceptees. It's more true of these "meet the batch" threads but that's a sample bias.

I suppose it's mostly an artifact of YC's growing so more internationally in recent years. There are others (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28257352 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28087309) but these are a small minority.

In many cases, the existing product is not designed to serve the needs of all countries/demographies/races/genders etc., so there's value in provided a better user experience for a specific niche, especially one that's growing.

I like using products that were created keeping me in mind as the primary customer. Wouldn't you too?

Something I've noticed as well. Might be related to geographic diversification, or that "[App] for [Emerging Market]" better answers the "Why now?" question.

feels like 1->N rather than 0-1. Which is just as good if not better in my book! But different.

I agree. Recently all these launches appear to be driven by the demographics of these founders than any real quality products. I guess in the name of "diversity". In fact, there was a thread here and at reddit sometime back about YC funding some student(s) for a product that shows a calendar in your MacOS dock/taskbar. What stood out there was the demographic of the "founders". When that point was made in the comments, here at HN, those posts were flagged and disappeared.