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Because it takes 10 or more years for one fund to run its course. If the associate stays with the VC firm, it's a long uphill road rising to the top. The fastest shortcut is to jump over to another firm that needs that associate's skillsets, and might even be open to issuing a profit's interest (split off of carry).

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How come they need to wait til the whole fund to run its course before bringing on new partners? Don't they raise new funds every few years, before old ones have entirely exited?

Yes but the average partner per fund for microVC (under $100M) is less than 2 people (1.94 is the average). So unless you're working for a large VC platform with several funds and plenty of room on the team's cap table, you're waiting patiently on the sidelines of a very long game.

And they can also probably file 83(b) elections claiming the profits interest have zero value to start the LTCG clock and avoid wage tax...

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