Here are the facts.

To have a chance of a successful exit everyone in any startup needs to work real hard. Simple as that.

If you are not interested in that, do not sign up for a startup, whether as a founder or employee. If you want to do startup, the deal is to work hard for a chance of a successful exit. Run your scenarios, estimate the chance of a successful exit, how much you can make realistically and decide if that kind of deal is for you. If not, there are plenty of larger companies hiring or you can bootstrap a slower-paced lifestyle business.

There is no real controversy here.