I think people have updated to be much too negative on the prospect of equity paying out. It's obviously much better than 1%, at least if you work at anything other than extremely early-stage companies.
Stock options are a lottery ticket, and I value them roughly the same.
Some companies experience liquidity events. Therefor the value of equity in those companies is positive. Some companies go out of business. Therefor the value of equity in those companies is zero.
If N is the ante hoc chance that a company will experience a liquidity event, then:
N * X + (1 - N) * 0 = value of liquidity
X is positive. 0 < N < 1.
Therefor the value is positive.
If you like, I'm happy to update my claim to, "startup equity often has non-trivial value, say, >$1000 per year."
Ok it's not zero. Is it 0.0000000000000000000000001?
Surely you're aware that obtaining 0.50$ is not going to have a large impact? Even if the sum is 3000$ the impact is extremely limited.
But you had to go and be a r/iamverysmart material because you actually have no more information than me.
Also learn to spell therefore please.
Something is different than nothing. When people repeatedly insist that something and nothing are the same, they get trivial answers.
And learn which side of the digits a dollar sign goes on please.