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).