Is it actually refreshing? It's actually refreshing to see Stripe staying private for so long. That means, they have a sustainable business model, and can take on projects that might benefit users in the long term despite negative short term consequences instead of focus on growing at all cost for the most part.

The counter-argument is that it's brutal for employees to never get exit liquidity, and it's also a transfer away from late-stage VCs into the hands of ordinary public market investors.

Think of how many ordinary people made really good money holding Apple/Microsoft/Nvidia/Google stocks for decades.