I don't quite understand. On the one hand you're saying that early employees should "demand market comp" and on the other you're saying that equity basically doesn't matter (and if you feel this way, it doesn't really make any sense to be joining a startup anyway). Are you conflating "compensation" with "salary"?
"Market comp" for a good engineer with several years of experience in the Bay Area is something like 250k - 350k at a Google or Facebook (with some variation in both directions here). It's not realistic, nor consistent with the market, for an early-stage startup to pay people this much in cash.
Early-stage companies should offer sufficient equity such that their employees should in expectation earn at least the same as they would at a public company. If their expected earnings are less than this, then more equity is absolutely a good solution.
"Market comp" for a good engineer with several years of experience in the Bay Area is something like 250k - 350k at a Google or Facebook (with some variation in both directions here). It's not realistic, nor consistent with the market, for an early-stage startup to pay people this much in cash.
Early-stage companies should offer sufficient equity such that their employees should in expectation earn at least the same as they would at a public company. If their expected earnings are less than this, then more equity is absolutely a good solution.