Not sure how that turns into a decrease in total comp instead of flattening out, unless the initial grant put them over the limit in the first place. In which case it was a really generous recruitment bonus.
It’s four years of growth that makes the initial grant look generous. For example $GOOG was like $800 in April’17. It’s over $2250 right now. $AMZN went from $900 to $3300 during the same time.