It's possible, but I think it's more that elevator pitches are often the tip of an iceberg. For example, if Uber had been part of YC, its one-line pitch might have been "limo service at the push of a button." That's not super exciting. But then I'd go to demo day, and full pitch would be: "we're starting with limos, and here's a graph of traction and retention for the last two months, and based on these trends we think we can move to using regular cars and undercutting taxis within 6 months." That's much more exciting IMO.
This assumes it was their plan from the beginning. Is that the case or did they later pivot based on new information. If the latter is the case then any company would arguably have billion dollar potential
Side-note: I realize you were using Uber as an example to make a point but actually "Limo Service at the push of a button" sounds pretty awesome on it's own.
