>rewarded immensely

Let’s define this. Let’s say 1:25? 1:50? What ratio is appropriate?

We don’t need to define it; employees define it by who they choose to work for given the equity granted to them by the founders.

If they didn’t like the deal, they would become founders themselves, or choose a company that offers a better deal.

It turns out that leadership drive and the compulsion to bring something new into existence from scratch is actually quite rare.

Your figures seem to be roughly in line with what the employment market has settled on, although price discovery could be better (most employees don’t get to see the cap table during hiring negotiation, which, IMO, is wrong).