Thank you for sharing a very personal story, I think it will lead to even more improvements to the overall process and community health.
As someone that was accepted to EAG with basically no EA accomplishments, I do strongly believe that admissions are not about “worthiness” but about “how much would going to EAG help you or others do the most good”.
Looking at the application, as a random nobody, I personally agree with the CEA decision (even ignoring the fact that they probably have a lot more information).
Not sure about discussing why in a comment, but happy to do it if someone would find it useful.
Edit: I really liked this paragraph
Let’s create a warmer community and be present for one another. There are many out there that have the capacity to listen and appreciate your unique talents. EA is a huge global community with different niches. Don’t leave just because one part of the community couldn’t/wouldn’t accept you.
And the fact that you actually found a solution/improvement (the gather town space) to solve your needs, I wish I had more of this mindset!
I don’t know how representative it is, but I know one person that worked pretty hard on the “less than an hour” application form. Asked feedback and had calls with several people to optimize it, rewrote it from scratch at least once, probably spent >30 hours on it in total.
It was probably worth it, they got a big raise and a much more exciting job. It was understandably life changing, and I think they’ll do a lot of good!
Being so life changing, I understand why applying could be a large investment, it can be large amounts of money on the line.