> and companies that granted them outcompeted companies that did not

What are you basing this claim on?

That of the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 [1], all but Broadcom and Berkshire Hathaway give generous stock options, and also that of the top 10 in 2000 [2], only one (Microsoft), maybe 2 (Cisco) did. If you look at change in index composition, or even total earnings by company, you'll see a very steady and dramatic replacement of companies that did not spread the wealth through stock options & RSUs with companies that did.

[1] https://www.slickcharts.com/sp500

[2] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-largest-sp-500-c...