That sounds pretty horrible. Am I correct in assuming though that once you get over the five year hump, you're OK? Also wouldn't startups mostly be paying devs out of VC funding rather than revenue the first five years?
Year 5 is just a steady state of no more phantom profit taxes, but you never really get that extra tax you paid back if you want to keep operating at the same level or grow.
So Musk was following a playbook after all...