The employees need to come from somewhere, and selling the dream helps with that. It’s also good investor storytime for the LPs, and great PR for prospective customers.
Not to mention it boosts applications from the unconnected, from which you can find the most appealing diamonds in the rough - or, if you’re more underhanded, you can just pass their ideas on to someone in your network.
This is the model Ivy League schools have practiced for decades; most applicants who get marketing materials from Harvard have no chance of getting admitted, and Harvard knows this.
> but they very much benefit from getting you to dream that you can, and your compliance
I can't see how VCs benefit from selling a dream to peasants.