When the fees go up to $1000 and over, then it becomes problematic, because then the application fees are obviously a source of profit. And if the angels or the entrepreneur forum or whatever make money from the application process they have little incentive to actually make investments.
But then I think that an entrepreneur is paying $150 or less for the opportunity to meet investors who might or might not ever invest in the company (actually they are prob more likely to not invest in terms of odds). So its paying for something that has a negative value, just a chance that they might be interested.
Also on the other side the investors should be cashed out entrepreneurs who have enough money to sustain themselves and are looking at companies to invest in and profit off of. Only seems fair that the investors should be footing that bill (even if its just administrative) and others like Chris Dixon agrees http://twitter.com/cdixon/status/9727260471
Hard to justify when the fee is such a small amount but it still feels wrong to charge entrepreneurs anything for an opportunity to pitch an investor group.
2) Even for a professional, you can't get chunks of work exactly 1 hour long. There are huge set-up and tear-down overheads to any job, plus little issues like finding the job and getting paid.
If you want to attract the next two MBA students, go ahead.
If you want to attract the next two poor, clever hackers disinterested in a normal job - perhaps you have chosen the wrong approach.
The insiders are whole-heartedly against this, because it threatens their influence. Its a scene right out of Ayn Rand.