It is not "free money" at all, it is an asset like any other on the company's balance sheet. For a publicly traded company such as Apple it wouldn't be options

It is not "free money" at all, it is an asset like any other on the company's balance sheet. For a publicly traded company such as Apple it wouldn't be options but RSUs and they are a percentage of you salary. And you still have to pay tax on them just like normal salary. Just because the built a new large campus it doesn't mean that the majority of people there will be worth tens of millions of dollars. Very senior management sure, rank and file engineers - not so much.