The amount of abuse and low-quality-of-life we'll put up with in exchange for the fantasy of becoming rich is shocking. It's like buying scratch off lottery tickets for "intelligent professionals."
I don't think it is just money. I think that many of startups sell themselves to employees via "we are special and superior" feeling. That is way it works best when their employees don't socialize outside of work due to long hours. It is the same in games industry: people like the sound of "I am working on a game", so they put up with worst conditions and pretty much any position - interesting or not.