It's not the lucky 1%, it's the carefully selected 1%.
The other 99% is where the random rejection component amounts to more like "bad luck".
IOW good luck on its own isn't even enough, but bad luck can set you back years.
And since there's realistically at least another 2% out of the 99 who would have been equally performant if there was actually room for them to be accepted, the greatest pool of most promising candidates are among those whom have been the most unlucky.
People aren't selected at random. There isn't any luck involved. It's hard work.
I feel it's diminishing peoples achievements to say that their lotto numbers came up and YC let them in.