Particularly when you look at any company which is growing very fast. SolarCity would be an example where the company is growing exponentially, but the returns are spread over 20 years instead of being realized quarterly.
The trouble with any accounting rules is that it's hard to convert everything on the balance sheet into the same unit. If you don't convert it all, it's really hard to compare balance sheets. If you do convert it all, this conversion may be unfair to one balance sheet more than another. Or at least that's how I understand it...
One example is pricing stock option grants so that you can then add them up with other expenses. I'm sincerely not sure how I'd do that. Here's a critique of what GAAP mandates:
http://www.cypress.com/documentation/ceo-articles/dr-rodgers...