As a foreword, I like incubator companies because they tend to ship nice looking, solid products.
In all cases you stated - "Who you know" matters more. Not context.
I/You/Anyone could make a "twitter for families" or a "twitter for sports" or a "url shortener for bacon" or whatever & it would not get written up on techcrunch - unless I/You/Anyone knew someone there (at TechCrunch) or was part of an incubator (like YC/TechStars).
TechCrunch needs some news, even if it is mediocre, every day, covering every company from every incubator is a good way to keep that news flowing.
I partly disagree. Of course, networking, contacts and "who you know" are important. And DailyBooth were undoubtedly helped in getting TC coverage by the YC connection. But that's PR, which is different to creating a compelling product in and of itself, which is where I believe context and positioning (eg. link shortener for bacon) is important.
In all cases you stated - "Who you know" matters more. Not context.
I/You/Anyone could make a "twitter for families" or a "twitter for sports" or a "url shortener for bacon" or whatever & it would not get written up on techcrunch - unless I/You/Anyone knew someone there (at TechCrunch) or was part of an incubator (like YC/TechStars).
TechCrunch needs some news, even if it is mediocre, every day, covering every company from every incubator is a good way to keep that news flowing.