Will there be lucky founders that become very rich? absolutely. Founders are generally very risk aggressive and are willing to go boom or bust. But for an average person that just want a good life why risk lower living standards for a low change of riches?
If you are very risk aggressive you can push for more equity, but expect your salary to be much lower than your peers. Most veteran SE will advise against it.
The other reason this isn’t true is that equity becomes a lottery ticket that is written in a founder and investor-preferred manner and is used to fleece mostly young employees who don’t know better and are romanced by the thought of being a part of the next Uber or Airbnb.
The practical reality is that it becomes “this job is worth $150,000 but we’ll pay you $100,000 and you can have some equity that might be worth hundreds of thousands if the casino pays out.”
But then you have investor preference multiples, valuation fuckery, and other ways that even a successful exited company can pay out less than your fair share.
To me cash is king because I can invest it however I want. Equity is fine if it’s for a public company, as that’s effectively just deferred cash as an incentive to stay longer.