My experience is that there are some "weird" effects of equity comp once one gets into the calculus of incentives:

1. Payoffs are too small to be consequential. If you own 0.01% of a company and are personal-profit-maximizing, then you are indifferent between (a.) Increasing the company's valuation by $1M and (b.) Getting $100.

2. Growth makes "rest and vest" a reasonable strategy. If a startup does well, then an employee's initial equity grant typically dwarfs all subsequent compensation; does it make sense to work hard for a $5k raise when your equity is worth $500k?