The problem is unless you hold onto the stock, you are not tied to the long-term growth of the company.

I think this is really trying to optimize to keep only the high performers without having to have a traditional stack ranking system.

Interestingly, I recall the Google article about the highest performing teams not being made up of the highest performing individuals, but the best communicators. No one seems to be trying to hire to create the best teams, but still just the highest performing individuals. Perhaps there is a Moneyball in tech work.