In practice, this is not the major pain point I think you are calling it. The letters I read often have variants of "We've returned [0.8-2.5x] capital and still have [Uber] in the portfolio!"

What may be painful is not being able to at least return capital by the end of the fund without a WONDERFUL story about coming liquidity.

Current industry average 10 year IRR is 10% according to Cambridge Associates. You've really fucked things up badly if you can't return capital in year 9/10 on a 10% IRR.