This deal explicitly does not include any provisions for anyone to get an early look at the companies.
That said, anyone who speaks at YC dinners obviously gets an early look at the companies in that cycle, since the point of the dinners is to introduce the startups to these experts, and you will notice that 3 out of 4 of the investors already speak at the dinners:
So the investors didn't need to do this deal to get an early look at the startups, because (along with all the other speakers) most of them already had it.
That said, anyone who speaks at YC dinners obviously gets an early look at the companies in that cycle, since the point of the dinners is to introduce the startups to these experts, and you will notice that 3 out of 4 of the investors already speak at the dinners:
http://ycombinator.com/w8speakers.html
So the investors didn't need to do this deal to get an early look at the startups, because (along with all the other speakers) most of them already had it.