Also, this doesn't really help post A, particularly if you're getting pretty senior and have a bunch of experience. At my last place, I would have had a $50k bill to do an 83b. I could write that check but goddamn is that a lot of cash to part with.
edit: thank you @rosser
* Employees have less incentive to stay because they won't run into the AMT "handcuff" situation (where if they leave they have to exercise their options or lose them, and they can't afford to pay the taxes to exercise the options).
* More employees will actually exercise their options before liquidity, which means more minority shareholders.
It's a massive lift for our team (based on tax savings) when an eventual liquidity event occurs, with no downside for the company other than additional paperwork and some legal costs.