I say that as a college hire to Amazon. I would have accepted damn near anything, and their offer was more than generous enough.
Also, my stocks started vesting after a single year. My total compensation at hire time: a $10k signing bonus with my first paycheck, another $10k after 1 year, and $45k in stock that vests over 4 years, with 5% at 1 year, 15% at 2, and then another 20% every 6 months. I could have literally received none of that and still jumped at the opportunity. Most college students don't have any idea what they can reasonably get in their field.
As for poor management, this is heavily dependent on where you are in the company. I know people in some areas that love it, and people in others that echo the terrible management claims. My manager is great, and I've never felt like management above him was a problem. I've also worked alongside other teams who were very obviously grossly mismanaged all the way up. Amazon seems to really lack a unified culture, so making blanket claims like that are about as useful and valid as making claims about all companies in Milwaukee.