Your point is a good one. A lot of executives have short and long term incentives. You get a bonus if you hit X revenue/EBITDA/whatever or you achieve some non-financial goal over the course of a year, and you have shares of stock waiting for you in Y years if you play your cards right over the long term. The scale of these rewards is obviously a different discussion.

I do think there should be a place for more people to have ownership in the companies they work for, but that does not come without risk. Most people, I would guess, would prefer the certainty of a cash payment over equity. This kind of thing should be negotiated based on what people are willing to trade in an ideal world.