That's the whole magic trick. Come work for us! We can only pay $50k in boring everyday money, but here's some tokens. We don't know what they're worth, and you can't spend them for many years or maybe not at all, but look at this picture suggesting they might be worth lots! Works really well on people new to the workforce.
Actually giving employees a means of valuing it, notably that their options turn into a class of shares that get paid after lots of other people and a sketch of how dilution works out in the meantime, stops them thinking it's a lottery ticket. It becomes a very low chance of winning less money than the opportunity cost relative to working elsewhere.
Much more fun for employees are RSUs. They have the same nice trick of becoming free when people quit. They let you adjust people's pay without annoying them as much as a salary freeze or reduction. A three or four year vesting period with roughly annual grants is near perfect as a salary retention tool.
Also rsu induced pay inflation has really hurt the startup recruitment pitch which helps defang an existential threat to your public company.
Not really what I want as an engineer but the incentive gradient is very clear.