I was given an option to improve my performance, but I chose a different path.

Look if this was dave from some no name company, there would be no real debate about what happened.

Altman isn't special, he's just rich and well connected.

Altman was booted from YC because he shouldn't have been making money from his side gigs. He broke the rules, and had some level of consequence.

Now that he's rich, and famous, he's not going to get much consequence, unless he vaporises a lot of money from the wrong people. But then he might be WeWork cult leader good and get away with it.