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> Why get a VC at that scale?

A dollar of VC is generally worth, ceteris paribus, more than a dollar of friends & family money. The coaching, connections, reputation boost when talking to other investors, sales prospects, potential employees, the media, et cetera are meaningful.

They may be meaningful but how valuable are they? I'm not sure there have been meaningful or rigorous attempts to answer that question.

That seems certainly to be true of YC, but I'm less certain about VC in general. YC aside, the major benefit of VC money is that it can make getting more VC money easier, since it's bundled with social proof.

Most YC companies raise much more money than YC's investment in the days following YC's demo day. The YC investment is just the start.

Aside from the fact (already mentioned) that YC investment brings other benefits besides the money: not everyone has friends and family who are willing and able to drop $150k on a baby startup.