> But you need a UK bank account,

Sure, I assumed this because you need that in any country you operate a legal entity.

> which requires a officer with a registered address in the UK.

This is the same in Sweden too

> Then you need to argue HMRC valuation discounts if you want to issue EMI options, which are only valid for 3 months, so you need to do it repeatedly. And then EMI option schemes are 15+ pages long contracts. Sweden has an equivalent stock option scheme that's ~2 pages, in comparison.

You have more experience than me there, I never had this as a problem to solve so you could be right.