The main argument for working at a big company, in my eyes, isn't on the list:

You need a big company to work on a big product.

If you want to work on something as complex, massive, multidisciplinary, and grand as, for example, the space shuttle, small companies aren't an option. Sure, you might be called upon to learn fortran, and there will be underperformers and politics. But the engineering challenges can be mind-blowing anyway.

I'm reminded of one of the characters in Snow Crash who loved her study so much she would go anywhere to practice it. Sometimes big companies are like that. A dead sexy product can make it all worth it.