Citation needed for the statistics you're drawing from. Obviously if you want to make millions you need to get that from stock, but that comes from taking risk. How many people ended up with way below market compensation by working for peanuts + stock for a company that went nowhere (or just went somewhere just for the preferred shareholders) compared to those that made had a legitimate payout that put them above market salaries?

Despite what TechCrunch and the VC industry would have us believe, it's nowhere near as clear cut as you make out.