This might be a cynical take, but in addition the things you typically hear, like improving cashflow and aligning incentives, I think it makes it easier to mana

This might be a cynical take, but in addition the things you typically hear, like improving cashflow and aligning incentives, I think it makes it easier to manage employees out. I.e., if you want to replace someone who it would otherwise be hard to fire, you could start refresher grants late or make them small enough that come year 5, it makes more financial sense for the employee to leave willingly. Some explanation, in case people aren't familiar with "big N" or FAANG comp schemes: when you get an offer, you're given a "base salary"—somewhere between 100 and 250k unless you're quite senior—a four year RSU (stock) grant with some vesting conditions, and info on typical year-end cash bonuses and RSU refreshers. The annualized four year grant is usually somewhere between 50% and 200% of your base salary, depending on seniority. See levels.fyi for details. A "refresher" is a four year grant given in each of years n, n + 1, n + 2, ..., where n is typically year 2. The refresher is usually a quarter of your initial grant, but companies often given themselves a lot of legroom to adjust this number depending on market conditions, employee performance, etc.