So you were or weren't accepted?

Was, but the question dodge was deliberate!

Anyway, even with all those factors, it doesn't seem to override my points above about the difficulty of such people of taking ten weeks off, or SIAI's past tendency to overlook such criteria.

Absolutely, I don't have an overall position to express on that one (talk to me in a few months) but your points seem valid.

Very successful people who can basically set their own hours could get the time off, but wouldn't they already have achieved what this course has to offer?

I would disagree on this one. Even, say, Tim Ferris could benefit from such a program despite already being successful and having an undeniable ability to research and train himself in practical skills independently. There is a level of strategy above that required for the social phenomenon of 'success' which is both rare and (I assume) at least part of what would be covered by a boot camp.