I like that the engineer refused to do the job. The founder managed to get someone else to do it, but refreshing to see engineers stand up to bad business practices.
There is legal liability with this (which can potentially include jail) with no upside (you don't get the upside in equity, just keep the shitty job). I'm surprised if there is an engineer who will comply.
Many would. If you're not rich enough to be able to afford being jobless, risking getting fired over a simple task is a very hard decision to make.
Then you must be a really bad engineer (both from being afraid to be jobless + from doing really bad math).
People have different experiences with poverty. So, while I agree the risk assessment is bad, competent people do stupid things for bad reasons because of their personal history all the time