Excellent point. This is what happened in the case where I was the VP Eng. Everyone in Engineering got low to high 5 figure cash payouts depending on seniorit

Excellent point. This is what happened in the case where I was the VP Eng. Everyone in Engineering got low to high 5 figure cash payouts depending on seniority, and C-levels and VPs (only a group of 5) got low/mid 6 figure deals. Everyone then got joining RSUs at their level for the acquiring company. So, everyone made some money, but not from the ISOs.