Fair point. The risks are huge. Makes sense if you've got 30% of the cap table. The risk is worth it. Esp if you are founder and on the board directing the company and fending off risks.
Not sure it makes sense if you've got 0.5% equity.
Definitely does not make sense if you are being given X,000 shares and have no access to the cap table.
Any engineer who thinks they can value a fraction with a numerator and no denominator is fooling themselves.
Startup employees -- if you were given 50,000 shares but told you arent allowed to see the cap table, please UPVOTE/DOWNVOTE accordingly if you think the pay-cut to market was worth the money you got at the IPO.
You're skipping the part about early hires having outsized impact over the fate of the company and the value of their equity.