Am I looking at it wrong?
The really only reason I can imagine doing it would be if I really liked the team and product, such that the actual experience of working there was going to be really fun. But the startups I worked at were similar or worse than the larger companies on those fronts.
I think this Dan Luu article is a good look at it: https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/
If you want the money... you can't beat the highly profitable big-tech companies.
If you want small teams, deep ownership of the projects you work on, and like being invested in your product/company you might enjoy a start up more.
(also this isn't a dig at big companies, it's just way harder to match the start-up/small co. experience)
Do not work at an early stage startup!
- Shitty experience because you won't have to do things right. Initial system will turn out like crap because you are rushed to build it. - You will be in constant firefights once live. You will feel like a hero but in reality you're just burning yourself out to make the leadership rich. - No customers so won't learn about scaling, - Little to no process. - Pay is crap - Equity is a complete scam. Company will do everything they can to keep you from capitalizing on them. 90 day exercise after leaving. 8-10 years before there's a market to sell and you won't last that long. Company won't buy them from you. Common shares instead of preferred. Dilution, etc. - Management is inexperienced and a lot of times abusive. - Once the company starts to succeed, a new wave of management will be hired. They will bring their own direct reports who blame you for creating the initial crappy system and your career will essentially be over at the startup.
I could go on.
(Also, your bullets didn't format properly, you may want to edit your response to fix that)
It all depends on what you want out of your work. The balance has shifted semi recently so that if you want to maximize your expected earnings, for most tech area engineers the answer has shifted from "pick the right startup" or maybe "go be a quant if you can" to "go work for FAANG".
Things get a lot more complicated if you are not merely optimizing for income.