Doesn’t this depend on how the ip was structured? If it was kept as a separate entity, or the firm named ownership of the ip in nonstandard terms, then they could pay investors but not employees.

Unfortunately, we could likely find thousands of different ways not to pay employees given they don’t have board seats, and are typically on non standard equity.

Definitely agreed that there exist thousands of different ways to not pay employees... but they don't have good incentive to cut them out.

Purely from a social contract lens, why would founders actively seek out ways to cut out their employees from a (potentially life changing) exit.