I don’t think you’re wrong but that’s part of the trade off?

If you grant stocks that means the company makes you part of the investor class subject to investor class level regulation. That leads to having investor class level benefits if the company succeeds.

If you’re implying that the convoluted equity packages companies offer as standard to employees now is better for them, then why aren’t founders or investors taking similar deals? I think that’s really the heart of the issue. Founders and investors are taking one type of deal, but then telling their employees they need to take a deal so bad that they would be insulted if you offered it to them.