I think the situation is pretty clear. You either have a significant stake of your empoloyer's success upside or not. This you see by the equity amount given to

I think the situation is pretty clear. You either have a significant stake of your empoloyer's success upside or not. This you see by the equity amount given to you. Employers have zero loyality to you as an employee and care the same amount about your career progression so in the end if you're not in for five-six (seven?) figure equity stake you're effectively a contractor / freelancer. By being an employee you're taking unlimited liability for long tail risk of your employer that otherwise would be priced into the freelance or service contract at a very high amount.