It allows more flexibility and risk profile for employee - and there's no way you can hide from AMT. If you're confident that the company will do well, you migh

It allows more flexibility and risk profile for employee - and there's no way you can hide from AMT. If you're confident that the company will do well, you might just exercise early if you can scrape up the cash or wait for a long time to determine if it's even worth it (even high profile companies go south). I see it binary: if the company is wildly successful and you have the option to extend exercising to liquid markets, you're not going to care about AMT that much.