This is very relevant research. I actually agree with the findings based on the people I know who have started technology companies.
I don't think it applies to the kind of people that YC is targeting - young, mobile, no dependents, able to live on very little $'s a year or the technology segment which is consumer web startups.
No resource is infinite. Technically, we could make more oil too. Just build some carbon lifeforms and give them the right environment for a few million years. In fact there is plenty of oil in the earth that we just can't get to because of the cost of retrieval.
The point is, once the cost of adding bandwidth exceeds the value to the market due to shortages of materials, energy, real estate, maintenance, etc you run into the same situation. Bandwidth availability has an s-curve like any other resource, and once you pass a certain threshold its just too expensive to add more pipes. It may not happen soon, but it will happen eventually. Its the same problem on a different time scale.
Actually, I think I remember an article claiming that having a startup does make entrepreneurs happy. It's everything else (income, social life, stress level) that gets worse for entrepreneurs when they start their own business.
Working for myself has definitely lowered my income, at least for the short term. But I'm fairly happy.
I don't think it applies to the kind of people that YC is targeting - young, mobile, no dependents, able to live on very little $'s a year or the technology segment which is consumer web startups.