Scale is off though, any startup worth investing in will want investment lots 10x to 1000x larger than that. Any investment willing to accept $1000 would be a large red flag. Thus the accredited system IMHO is super reasonable. Anyone with enough capital that investments of 10kUSD to 100kUSD into high risk investments makes sense must have significant other capital. Meanwhile it saves the regular Joe from getting scammed out of his $1000 emergency fund.
Not running lotteries, for example. Or regulating the health care market to bring doctors' and lawyers' salaries down to European levels. Or taxing income in the 6-digit range at the rates of comparable countries. Or taxing investment returns at levels comparable to incomes.
But there really isn't even a theory of why "regular Joe" striking it rich is in any way threatening to the status quo, is there?
The assumption is accredited investors are more capable of doing their own diligence and better able to weather the loss of a $50K angel investment than Regular Joe.
If you want to swing for the fences with angel investing, you need to be accredited.
Investing in an angel phase company as a normal wealth individual would be like if someone asked you if you wanted to be the house at a roulette wheel where someone is going to bet $100,000 on red. Sure, the bet is in your favor, but there is a good chance you are going to lose it all. Most of us can't afford that.
(Not sure if 10% and 50:1 is anywhere close to what angel investors shoot for.)
Yes. Not so much on your own, but as part of a friends&family pool of investments.
I'd guess none? I think it just gives you access to riskier forms of investment like hedge funds.