I find jams are huge crunches at first, but as you do more of them your project management skills go through the roof as you're able to estimate what you can do in limited time. This is super handy for real world settings - I'm always being asked to give timeline predictions for projects in a limited timeframe, and jams have helped to build up my 'gut' for how long work takes.
Viewing post in I'll mostly be a spectator, but...
I like your take. It was certainly illuminating to be there and feel the vibe as the event began. I actually can see how this hones your skills. As long as everyone is clear that it’s not training for crunch time (or, maybe more accurately, it’s not to validate crunch time), I think I can get behind it.
Don’t know if I’ll be able to make a game, but let’s see what happens. Definitely, I was glad to be there and meet new people (and chat with a few I already know, too; nice community we’ve got in the gamedev DMV).