This is more of a question/thought that I would like to throw out there rather than a theory. In season 2, Michael is given a list of people to bring to the others so he and Walt can escape. Those people are Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sawyer. Those are also the majority of the Dharmaville 70's crew that Ben met as a child. He wouldn't wait Sayid because Sayid shot him as a child and tortured him as an adult. He already had Juliet and apparently went to great lengths to get her on the island and keep her there. Hurley he let go because he wasn't a major player and Jin wasn't either.
I can't help myself...I actually do have some theories. I think that Jack saves young Ben which makes Ben think Jack can save him from his tumor later on. He is already the hero type to Ben and Ben knows he will try and fix anyone. Juliet is nice to him during recovery from his shooting wound. She becomes the only mother figure he ever really knew and he becomes fixated on her and then discovers she exists in his adulthood and he gets her to the island (That part I am a little bit sketchy on...either he found out as a child that they were from the future and kept an eye out for them or they just met by accident). Sawyer was big man on campus (who wouldn't want him around or who wouldn't want to take him down a notch). Kate is....well....um...pretty? I am sure she will interact with child Ben in a way to make adult Ben add her to the list.
Anyways, I just thought it was interesting that Ben would put the people he met as a child in the 70's on the list. What do you think his reasons were? I am of course assuming that he did recognize them as an adult and just kept it to himself. Who would believe him if he told them he met them during their adventures time traveling back to the 70's? No one.