Rough 43K employees (in 2020 per Wikipedia) at $17K each is a maximum tax-free gift of $731M to some hypothetical co-op.
In 2022 Hobby Lobby had $7.7B in revenue suggesting that it is worth quite a bit more than $731M. The difference would be subject to gift taxes at a rate of 40% if transferred into employee hands.
He frankly could not have given it materially to the employees at once without liquidating a serious portion of his holdings to pay the gift taxes.
Though, it could be transferred as compensation and taxed at income rates. But then the employees would be dumping shares to pay the taxes.
(Someone please correct me if I am off here with my numbers/understanding.)