Assuming an up round, dilution causes you to own less of a company on a percentage basis, but the actual dollar values of your shares will be worth more. If things are going well (which is admittedly rare, and the lightning you’re trying to bottle) dilution just makes your piece of the pie grow somewhat sub-linearly to the overall equity value creation, but certainly isn’t making it negative.

I find it much easier to reason about equity comp on a per share basis rather than a percentage ownership basis (and frankly don’t understand the constant advice to try and think about it on a percentage basis - though will always happily share that with job candidates).

Additional equity grants are what can make up for dilution, not additional cash comp. I also believe that cash and equity are fundamentally different types of compensation, given for different reasons, and are not particularly fungible. I always try to make equity as comprehensible as possible, but the reality is that it IS complicated - and worth spending time to actually understand because, while there are ways to get misled, it’s also the path to wealth creation.