Options are a risk you take, and every analysis out there says that one should discount them almost to zero, especially for startups. It does suck for those em

Options are a risk you take, and every analysis out there says that one should discount them almost to zero, especially for startups. It does suck for those employees that their risk didn't work out, but for most of them it was a conscious decision to take on the risk, presumably for a high potential upside. And if you accept the risk, then its unfortunate that it didn't work out, but that is what risk is.