Over the decades, I've learned that deferred compensation is such a double-edged sword that I no longer take it into consideration at all when I'm considering a job.
My primary compensation has to be satisfactory assuming I'll never get a dime beyond that. If I end up getting deferred income, gravy! But if I don't, I'm still fairly compensated -- so no loss.
What about joining an existing competitor? How is "competitor" defined? Is it competition if someone left Apple's iWork team to join Microsoft's Office team? Or just left Apple to join Microsoft even if it's in a non-competing, or even a team that's actually beneficial to Apple's bottom-line (e.g. Azure, as iCloud runs on Azure+AWS+GCP)?
...these difficulties in nailing down "competition" is what leads to overly broad and ultimately unconscionable noncompete agreements.
Ultimately I wouldn't trust an employer to define it for me - so if I were in that position I'd tell them I'd treat a noncompete as a gardening-leave clause and require 200% my final TC for the same time period (so 4x my salary for 2 years) - if my ability to compete with the company is really worth that much then they'll gladly have no problems paying it - and if they don't, then they're clearly a company that wants to exert undue interference (i.e. punishment?) on former employees for no good reason and I'd interview somewhere else.
On a philosophical level, I'm not sure it's good to allow people to sign away any kind of freedom, including the economic liberty to start your own company. Competition is also very important for capitalism to work for people who don't own capital...
I don't think it's a good idea to allow things like this. You're just giving big incumbent companies another way to spend money to stifle competition.
“You’re allowed the pursuit of happiness, but not in this particular way.”
For example I've never had deferred comp til my previous firm.
Every time I moved I asked for a signing bonus and they told me to get out.
This time I mention "Well I have some deferred comp I'd be foregoing".. verbally give them a number, and now they are offering me a sign on bonus, cash, in first paycheck 33% above what I was losing in deferred.
Hilariously they didn't even ask for documentation..
Another place sounded like they were going to to through the documentation on prevFirm deferral and put me in some form of deferred comp equivalent with a worse vesting schedule, but again, money I have never had anyone offer me before.